Love Lies
by EmmaLovesBooks23
Summary: Emma Swan and Killian Jones have both been sentence to live a Greenwood Academy after events that sent them both spiraling way from normal life. What they didn't know was that fate was pushing them together. A story about love and redemption between two people that shows, if you have the right person beside you, you can find a light in the darkness. See story for full summary.
1. Chapter 1

**Love Lies (1/15)**

 **Summary:** Ever since Emma was 13, she knew she had the ability to destroy people if she wanted to, and some days, she really wanted to. After being forced to go the the Greenwood Academy following a traumatizing event in her childhood that brought to the surface her ability to manipulate fire, she never thought she would be free of the place. So for nearly 10 years, she lived a solitary existence with the exception of her best friends, but that was all about to change.

Killian Jones had just been sentenced to attend the university campus at Greenwood Academy after an accident at sea caused him to be dishonorably discharged from Her Majesty's royal Navy and lose his hand. He doesn't know what to think about these newfound powers and what they spell for the rest of his now not-so-normal life. But a chance encounter one day has the ability to change all of that.

A story about love and redemption between two people that shows, if you have the right person beside you, you can find a light in the darkness.

 **Rating: M**

 **Content Warnings: Mentions of Violence/Death, Brief mention of Childhood Abuse/Sexual Assault, Mild Sexual Content**

 **Notes:** Oh My Goodness! It's Finally Here! This is my first completed work (ever) and my first story for the CSBB! This AU has been a baby of mine for a while, and this project finally gave me the push to finally get it down onto paper and out of my head. I couldn't do it on my own though, I have a **_HUGE_** thank you to give to my beta daveyjacobsthepotterhead. Without her guidance, this work wouldn't be nearly as good and composed as it is now. Thank you again for finding all of my plot gaps and inconsistencies and dealing with my, at times, horrible grammar. You have been my cheerleader since we were paired together and I couldn't have asked for a better experience. Thanks to princesse-swan as my artist as well! I can't wait for all you lovely readers to see the wonderful art that she has put together for this story, I am blown away by it! Thanks again to the Mods for the BB, you ran a great project this year and kept me moving the entire time, even when it seemed like I was not going to be able to finish. Thanks to all the wonderful ladies on the discord chat, I will remember those late night, incoherent sprints always.

Without further ado, here is my Captain Swan Big Bang! Enjoy!

* * *

Emma just made it into the doors of Mary Margaret's dorm before the skies opened up and rain began to pour down from the heavens. She knew that it was supposed to rain that day, but in typical college student fashion, she decided against bringing her umbrella with her and just risk it.

Shaking her hair out from under her hat, she started to make her way up the back stairwell towards the fourth floor. David and Mary Margaret, she knew, were already waiting for her in Mary Margaret's room for their planned study session for Ethics 104. She hated that class.

To be honest, she hated a lot of the whole, college charade that the school was putting up. That's what this entire school was, a charade, it was a cleverly disguised prison. Schools like Greenwood were where they sent anyone who was deemed to be "different", which was complete bullshit in her opinion. Anyone who manifested any type of power or gift, be it completely harmless to something deadly like her own powers, was sent here, or one of the dozens of other schools around the world like it.

But what made Greenwood Academy different was that it was one of seven schools in the country that had a college as part of the locked campus. Which was why Emma and her friends were currently suffering through Ethics 104 with the world's most boring professor.

Pushing past a group of students coming down the stairs, she rounded the final corner and made her way up the final flight of stairs towards the door to the fourth floor. Bright neon pages decorated the inside of the stairwell on the floor. Join KickBoxing Club, Friday nights in Fourtner Hall; Rock Climbing adventures, Starting the second weekend into Fall Semester. All of them meant to draw in the attention of the students visiting the hall, but all of them came with their own starred caveats at the bottom, "Super Strength not allowed, Students with physical powers not allowed, Must not have a power activated by physical contact to attend, NO HIGH RISK STUDENTS." Emma sighed every time she saw them, since she was never able to go. Emma did her best to ignore the brightly colored advertisements as she walked down the hall. While they held interest as something she could possibly do besides just hanging out with her friends or in her room, she wasn't able to participate as a high risk student.

Making a right turn down the hall, Emma arrived outside of Mary Margaret's door and gave a quick knock. After hearing her chipper "Come in!" through the door, Emma turned the knob and dropped her bag next to the door.

"Looks like you made it here just in time Emma, it's really coming down out there." David commented from the middle of the notebooks and laptops scattered about the floor.

Mary Margaret was sprawled out on her bed amongst her textbooks, highlighting the middle of a paragraph in bright pink highlighter, adding to the already colourful carnage on the page.

"Definitely, considering I left my umbrella in my room this morning." Emma commented back, shrugging out of her leather jacket and hanging it on the back of the computer desk chair that was to her left.

Emma grabbed her notes and textbook and moved across the room to spread her stuff out on the desk next to David. Right after she got settled the door swung open again, revealing to the three of them a soaking wet Ruby Daniels.

"Looks like you weren't the only one to have left their umbrella behind." Mary Margaret commented dryly.

Ruby paused in the middle of the room as three sets of eyes turned to look at her, and with a small smirk as their only warning, shook out her red and brown locks like a disgruntled wet dog.

David picked up his text book off the ground and began to brush the water from the pages, "Geez Ruby, was that really necessary?"

Ruby continued to look around the room with a wolfish grin on her face, knowing that she had succeeded in getting a rise out of her friends. "True, I didn't have to, but isn't it more entertaining when I do?" She asked, quirking an eyebrow as she shrugged out of her coat and hung it in her closet.

While Emma and Mary Margaret had roomed next to each other Mary Margaret's first year at Greenwood, Ruby had stumbled upon their friend group by chance. There was one night freshman year when Mary Margaret and David had gone out and gotten trashed after a particularly hard exam week, and David had gotten lost in the woods.

Ruby just happened to be partying in the same area and overheard the distressed phone call that Mary Margaret had made to Emma back on campus, not being able to find her boyfriend. Ruby, in her wolf form, was single-handedly able to track David down in the middle of the night.

David and Mary Margaret introduced Emma the next morning, after their hangovers had lessened, and they had all quickly become fast friends. So much so that when Mary Margaret's roommate Regina got clearance to live outside the academy, Ruby moved in the next term as her roommate.

"So does anyone understand what Professor Rodham was trying to get across on study guide question number seven?"

Emma jolted, not realizing that she had zoned out staring at her textbook.

"Nope, I am SO lost in that class in general so I have no idea." Ruby offered from her place at her desk.

Mary Margaret slumped down into the pile of papers on her bed and sighed, "What even is this class? I don't even know why they require us to take an ethics class."

"Because it prepares you for 'normal life'" Emma quipped, not looking up from the textbook that she had started leafing through.

"Yeah, but we are not normal, that's why we came here! Why do we have to do normal people stuff anyway?!" Ruby whined.

Ruby did have a point. Since Greenwood Academy was one of a select few schools that had a college style campus on the same grounds, many people from around the country transferred into the school if they weren't given clearance to leave and assimilate into regular society at the end of high school.

"Because you can likely graduate from here and move onto a normal job, Ruby, you weren't forced to continue college at one of these schools," Emma commented.

Ruby gave her a withering look. "I know that, but it doesn't mean that we have to be forced into doing classes that have nothing to do with our major."

"Regular colleges actually have you do that as well," David said, deciding to join the group effort of ignoring their ethics assignment.

"You didn't go to a regular college either, how do you know that?" Mary Margaret asked him.

"My twin is perfectly normal, so he went to a normal college. My mom wrote me once and told me all about it." David explained. "Apparently they have these things called 'General Education Requirements' where you have to take a certain number of courses in other disciplines to graduate with a specific degree."

"That blows," Ruby commented, dismissing the explanation with a wave of her hand. "Does anyone want to order pizza?"

"So that is a no to the answer to question seven then, right?" David asked, shuffling the papers around in front of him.

"David, I say this with affection, but none of us care about this class." Mary Margaret said from the bed, still sprawled out on top of her papers and textbooks.

"No! Emma still has my back, she cares about that class, right?" He said, giving her a look that begged her to agree.

"Sorry David, I have absolutely no concern about a course that I am not going to use for the rest of my life." Emma said, pulling one of her favorite books out of her bag.

David sighed in defeat, turning to work on his assignment alone.

Ruby spied the book in her hands and let out a noise of exasperation. "Honestly, Emma! Are you ever going to return that book!"

Emma carefully gathered her copy of 'Where the Sidewalk Ends and Every Thing On It' by Shel Silverstein to her chest. The binding was slowly falling apart, and a page or two may have been haphazardly shoved back in after they fell out, but the weathered library barcode label was still affixed to the front cover, even though no plastic covering remained.

It was one of her favorite books when she was growing up, her brother read her poems from it every night before bed. And once she was off restriction after first arriving and had finally been fitted with her suppressor bracelets, they allowed her into the library the first time. She had scanned the shelves for hours, looking for something that she hadn't already read before that she could sit down with and read for a little bit (they were still weary about letting her bring books outside of the library, even though she hadn't shown any tendency at the time to possibly flare up and accidentally burn a book) and had stumbled upon the copy on the end of a shelf. The size of the book didn't fit in with any of the other shorter books and it was leaning to hold the other books in place. Pulling it off the shelf and to her chest, she began crying, missing her home and her brother with a ferocity that hurt.

One of the librarians had happened upon her not long after, curled into a ball clutching the already worn book to her chest. The woman looked down upon her kindly and comforted her to the best of her abilities, and asked her if she would like to keep the book. She had nodded, wiping the tears from her face. The woman walked her up to the front counter, wrote down some information about the book and took down Emma's name and current room location (since Emma didn't know her case number off the top of her head at the time) and promised her that she wouldn't have to worry about anything.

And in almost 10 years of having the book, no one had ever come to her requesting the book back.

"Maybe one day," Emma murmured, "I'm a bit sentimental." She looked up at Ruby as she set the book into her lap, hoping to change the conversation, "Didn't you say something about pizza?"

"That's right!" Ruby exclaimed, leaning back in her desk chair. "Mary Margaret, where did we put the brochure for the on campus pizza place?"

Mary Margaret, who had been ignoring the conversation and reading for a different class, started. The book she was holding above her head fell onto her face and the papers surrounding her on the bed jolted, many cascading to the floor with her ethics textbook.

David instantly moved to start gathering the papers, while Mary Margaret just sighed in defeat from under the book. "Ummm, I think it is in the top right drawer of my desk, but it could also be on the refrigerator."

Later, after demolishing three pizzas between the 4 of them and completely abandoning the studying for their ethics exam, they were lounging on the futon and floor watching The Bachelorette.

"You know, I still don't understand why people sign themselves up for these things," Ruby commented, "I mean, it's pretty pathetic looking."

"Well, not all of us are blessed with having a good-looking, future doctor as our boyfriend." Emma commented from her place on the floor.

"Very true," Ruby stated, "So, when are you going to start looking for a boyfriend Emma?"

Emma choked on her popcorn for a second. "Excuse me?"

"Yeah. Emma, I have known you for three years, there has to be someone that you have an interest in." Mary Margaret chimed in. Emma looked pleadingly up at David to try and rescue her from this conversation.

David and Emma had known each other the longest out of any of the friends gathered. While her and Mary Margaret had roomed next to each other for a bit before getting to know one another, David and Emma had literally run into each other while they were heading across campus. Emma was running late for one of her intro science classes and had slammed right into David as he was exiting the science hall. They were fast friends after that. Especially because David, upon sitting down with her for a bit and getting to know her on one of her hard days, began to just step into the role of her older brother.

Emma would forever be grateful that he did that for her.

But he didn't come through for her now.

"Emma, while I don't necessarily condone the meddling of my girlfriend and her best friend, they do have a point."

She sighed, closing her eyes and trying to think. Emma was lucky that she even had this many friends outside of the one or two other high risk students that she had had a conversation with during her years at the academy. Once it became public knowledge that someone was a known high risk student, many people began to avoid them.

"There have been a couple of guys…"

"AND…?" Ruby interrupted.

"They take one look at these," Emma shook the suppressor bracelet on her left wrist under her friend's nose, "And the attention tends to turn elsewhere."

If someone came to the academy with what was already known to be a high risk ability, or had seriously injured or killed someone, they were immediately outfitted with custom suppression gear that nulled their powers while they were on. This prevented the students from posing a risk to themselves or anyone else on the campus.

Ruby's nose wrinkled, "Have those always smelt like that?"

"Like what?" Emma commented. She'd gotten this pair of suppressors two years ago, after the last set died on her.

"Like death."

"Well, they didn't design them to be pleasant," Emma quipped back.

"Well, not everyone-"

"Yeah, they do," Emma said, interrupting whatever 'hope and love speech' Mary Margaret was about to give her, "And honestly I'm not really looking for anyone anyways. I'm going to head back to my dorm."

"Emma, you really don't have to go just yet," Mary Margaret commented, seeming to try and salvage the situation. Emma just shook her head as she shoved the rest of her books and papers back into her bag, moving 'Where the Sidewalk Ends' to another pocket to prevent it from getting further destroyed.

"No, it is really time for me to be heading back," Emma said, looking at the setting sun peeking out from behind the dispersing rain clouds as she tugged her rain boots back on.

She caught David laying a placating hand on Mary Margaret's thigh, preventing any further protest from the woman. "Thanks for the company Emma." David said, giving her a quick wave with his other hand.

Emma reciprocated with a small quirk of her lips as she slung her bag over her shoulder and backed out the door to the room.

Taking the back stairs down the four flights to head back to her dorm on the other side of campus, Emma thought back on the end of the conversation. Sure, Emma really hadn't invested any time in guys or relationships. But honestly, she thought, why would she? It wasn't likely that she would ever leave the academy and the communities after she graduated, so why should she invest any kind of time in a relationship with someone who would eventually just leave her? And, considering what happened with her stepfather that caused her to come to the academy in the first place, she really didn't feel like an actual relationship would ever be in the cards for her.

Emma passed a few students leaving the academic buildings late heading for the dorms on the other side of campus or to their cars. She enjoyed the solitude of a quiet walk across campus at the end of the day.

Feeling a bit like a little kid, she looked down at her booted feet and the puddles scattered about the sidewalk. Letting go, she just started jumping from puddle to puddle on the walk across campus. A small giggle escaped her for a moment just as she slammed into a solid chest, sending them both crashing down onto the damp sidewalk.

Emma closed her eyes and cringed, her head hitting the sidewalk.

"You know, with the way you were laughing there lass, I think you meant to run into me just then." A distinctly British-sounding voice came from just to her right.

Emma opened her eyes just as a pair of eyes the color of the midday summer sky came into view. One hand grabbed hers, the other arm slipping into her armpit to leaver her up.

"Up we go love," he said, steadying her a bit as he set her on her feet.

She looked down to see papers strewn about the pavement, many of them now soaking wet. "I am so sorry about that, I wasn't watching where I was going," she commented, immediately kneeling down to start picking the papers up, feeling all too clearly his gaze on her. She tucked her hair a bit awkwardly behind her right ear under her hat.

"No need to fret about it love, I have it all on a digital drive anyway," the stranger commented.

She really should get his name, Emma thought to herself.

"I still feel bad, I got your clothes all wet," she said.

Her back was a bit damp now that she thought about it, along with the knees of her jeans.

Looking over at him, she noticed he was gathering papers next to her, but not necessarily with the intent of trying to salvage the damp paper. He used his left arm, which she just noticed ended at his wrist, to try and push the paper against the pavement towards his right hand.

"Well, you can make it up to me by giving me your name Love, sound like a fair trade?" He asked, flashing a grin that was all white teeth in her direction.

"Sorry, I don't give my name to strangers," she commented back, handing him a stack of sopping wet papers, standing as she did so.

He stood up alongside her, pushing the mass of paper into the crook of his left elbow, extending his right, gloved hand towards her.

"The name's Killian Jones, at your service."

Emma extended her right hand to meet his.

"Emma Swan."

She would be lying if she said her heart didn't skip a beat when he took her hand and smiled at her.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary** :

Ever since Emma was 13, she knew she had the ability to destroy people if she wanted to, and some days, she really wanted to. After being forced to go the the Greenwood Academy following a traumatizing event in her childhood that brought to the surface her ability to manipulate fire, she never thought she would be free of the place. So for nearly 10 years, she lived a solitary existence with the exception of her best friends, but that was all about to change.

Killian Jones had just been sentenced to attend the university campus at Greenwood Academy after an accident at sea caused him to be dishonorably discharged from Her Majesty's royal Navy and lose his hand. He doesn't know what to think about these newfound powers and what they spell for the rest of his now not-so-normal life. But a chance encounter one day has the ability to change all of that.

A story about love and redemption between two people that shows, if you have the right person beside you, you can find a light in the darkness.

 **Rating** : M

 **Content Warnings** : Mentions of Violence/Death, Brief mention of Childhood Abuse/Sexual Assault, Mild Sexual Content

 **Chapter Notes:** Here is Chapter 2 Guys! The story finally starts rolling from this point on, we find out so much about Emma's back story and how she came to be at Greenwood! Thanks as always to my Beta Daveyjacobsthepotterhead for making this story amazing and to my artist princesse-swan for the art done for this story that you guys will get to see next week!

 **Chapter 2**

One of Emma's least favorite days at the academy had arrived, Open Campus Day. This day was meant to let new, prospective students for the college level tour the campus and see if this campus was where they wanted to continue their education, allow parents to come and visit their children, as well as allow non-violent students to leave campus for the day to eat out or go and do something in the community surrounding the academy. But the Academy also had ulterior motives for the day, and brought in many government officials to tour the facility to see the different techniques for how they control and contain their powers.

This allowed the government to keep better track of all the high risk cases they had files or cases on, as well as try and discover loopholes in the academy's procedures for training students to attempt to write stricter laws allowing them to confine more and more people to the communities around the world.

Discrimination at its finest.

But the thing that bothered Emma the most was that all High Risk students were restricted to their rooms on Open Campus days, because they "posed too great a risk to the general public" according to every official statement that the academy released ahead of the day. This also meant that all the published reasons for Open Campus day didn't apply to them. No family visits, no friends, no company. Ever.

And that's how Emma found herself locked down in her room for the day. The dorms on campus for high risk students were built more like studio apartments, so she at least had access to a bathroom and small kitchen throughout the day.

Emma was painting in an attempt to pass the time.

Since she didn't have to worry about having a different career outside of a regulated community, she was really allowed to major in whatever she wanted on campus without having to worry about providing for herself in the future. And painting was one of the things that she did before she came to Greenwood that she actually enjoyed.

Dipping her brush into the sky blue paint on her palate, she turned back to her canvas and added a touch to a pair of eyes looking back at her.

Sean, her older brother, had sent her a letter recently that contained an image of his first daughter with his wife Ashley, baby Alexandria. Emma was hoping that once she finished the personalized painting of the newest member of her family, the academy would allow her to send it to them without any trouble.

She thought back on the other paintings of family members she had done before she left and wondered if her mother still hung them on the walls in her home.

Mixing together some brown, orange, red, and white in hopes of getting a reasonably peachy skin tone, Emma was working on filling in the little girl's round cheeks when there was a knock on her door.

"This is a High Risk Room, I can't open the door," she called back, not looking away from the painting.

Hearing the release of the mechanical lock holding her door shut, Emma immediately dropped her paint brushes and backed away from the door. Besides the headmaster of the academy, she did not know who would have the security clearance to open her door. For a moment, she wished fervently that she was able to remove the bracelets smothering her powers from her wrists so she had the possibility of protecting herself. She didn't relax even though she saw the familiar face of her personal coach Graham through the door. The five security guards standing behind him were enough to cause her to push further back against the wall next to her bed instead. She wished the window wasn't bullet-proof, she might have had a chance of breaking through it to get free.

"Graham, what a surprise to see you," she commented, hoping to sound stronger than she felt, "What can I do for you today?"

Despite her best efforts, the tremble in her voice came through enough that one of the guards behind Graham smirked.

"The Headmaster would like to see you in the secure training wing," Graham said, extending a hand from behind his back.

Emma blanched as she beheld what Graham had in his other hand. Because even though she had on her suppressor bracelets, they would still have to bring her across campus, and that required the glove-chains.

The Academy had a set of chains made for very volatile shifters or new cases that had powers that manifested from their hands that they couldn't control. They were required to wear the metal gloves attached to chains to fully immobilized their hands and suppressed powers even more effectively than any other device that the government had created.

Noticing that it wasn't likely that Emma would move from her place against the wall, Graham took a step into her room, shrugging off the hand of the security guard that moved to stop him. Emma slid down the wall and extended her hands to him palms up, tucking her chin down into her chest.

"I'm sorry Emma," Graham said as he slipped the first glove onto her right hand.

The effect was immediate. Emma felt as though a blanket had been thrown over her senses and her stomach moved into her throat.

She pressed her lips together in an attempt to prevent herself from vomiting. The first time she had been shoved, screaming, into the gloves when she was thirteen, she had puked. Graham slipped the other glove over her left hand and, moving behind her, got his arms under her armpits and heaved her to her feet. Emma swayed as the room spun around her. These gloves were designed to keep even the strongest of animal shifters stuck in their human bodies, dulling senses even in human form, so the effect that it had on Emma was debilitating.

"Can one of you get her other side please, I can't support her full weight across campus." Graham asked, working at trying to keep her on her feet.

Emma felt someone else slide one of their arms under her own, and between the two of them, got most of the weight off her feet and began moving her around the easel in her room and out the door.

The trudge through tunnels under campus,made so prospective students didn't witness how some of the cases here were really treated, was a daze. Her head was spinning and she felt as if her stomach was trying to push its way out of her throat.

"Stop" Emma groaned part of the way down a tunnel, moving her right hand weakly to grab at the person holding her. The chains, loose and rattling while they were essentially pulling her across campus, went taut. She needed a minute to steady her head or she was seriously going to vomit.

Graham must have heard her, because she didn't sound very loud to her own ears, and stopped. The security guard holding her other side, however, didn't, and kept moving, forcefully pulling on her shoulder.

"What's the hold up here?" He asked gruffly.

Emma scrunched her eyes shut, pulling more on her chains to try and hold her head in place. The security guard pulled at her again, jostling her around and making her head **really** feel like it was going to roll right off her shoulders.

"What are you doing?" He asked, tugging at the arm that he was holding while he was talking.

"Hey, just give her a minute, okay?" Graham said from off to her right. He set her down a bit so more of her weight was once again resting on her feet, trying to hold her steady as she swayed again, her feet sliding out a bit from beneath her. His voice came from in front of her when he spoke again, "Emma, are you alright?"

"The world is spinning," was all she was able to mutter back, pulling again to try and get her hands up high enough to be able to hold her head steady.

The security guard, ignoring what she was saying, jostled her again. "Stop trying to pull free of the chains you little bitch, keep moving."

Graham turned to the guard, while trying to steady her shoulders again, moving his hands up to try and hold her neck still since she wasn't able to get her hands up, "Have you ever been in a set of these before, just give her a minute to reorient herself, okay? We have a bit of time before we have to be to the training room anyway."

The security guards muttered something, but mercifully stopped pulling back on her chains.

With Graham holding onto her neck, the world was slowly coming to a stop around her, and while the urge to vomit had decreased some, it still sat uncomfortably at the back of her throat. His thumbs gave a slow slide along her jawline, "Do you think that you can keep moving again?" he asked quietly after a couple of minutes.

Emma nodded, slowly opening her eyes to see him looking at her with concern. He gave her a quick quirk of his lips, a shadow of a smile, and then slowly released her face and neck. Watching to make sure she kept steady, Graham went around to her right side and levered his arm under hers, again lifting some weight off her feet as they continued to help escort her down the tunnels.

Graham had been assigned to her as her personal trainer four years ago, after her previous coach retired.

At six years her senior, it was hard not to notice the unruly locks of brown hair and the light in his blue eyes, the way he smiled at her when they actually were able to train her abilities and she did something proficiently.

She knew nothing could ever really happen, he was her coach for fucks sake, but she still had eyes.

Graham didn't look at her like he could be afraid of her, and it had also been a long time since a guy looked at her with anything remotely close to interest and not fear or disgust of her abilities.

Then again, for a blip of a second, sky blue eyes flashed through her brain. Killian hadn't necessarily looked at her with disgust, but he also hadn't taken note of her suppressor bracelets.

Emma slammed her eyes back shut after Graham buzzed them through a locked door into the secure training wing of the Academy, the overhead fluorescent lights blinding. They carried her down another set of hallways, to where the largest auditorium was located. Again pulling out his badge, Graham buzzed them through a final set of locked doors.

Emma hadn't been in the training wing for a couple of months, but it hadn't changed since the first time she was brought into one of the secure rooms on her first day at the academy.

" _The steel doors of the training auditorium are at least 5 inches thick," the Warden had explained to her as she was deposited into the room. "Meant to keep some of our most dangerous and unstable cases contained." A wary look was cast in her direction._

 _She got that look from many here, no one could understand what had a 13 year old girl at the top of the High Risk cases list. There were no more than 20 High Risk individuals at this institution, but that was still more than most places could handle. And all of them had been sentenced to the Academy well into their late teens, maybe early twenties if they had graduated from a high school level academy somewhere else in the region and had been sent here as part of their sentence. So she was a bit of an anomaly._

" _The Headmaster will be in to see you and discuss where you will go from here." the Warden had said before he buzzed through those five-inch-thick steel doors and she heard the airlocks seal her into the room._

The sound of those locks sealing her in at the age of thirteen flashed again through her mind as those same locks clicked shut behind her.

Graham and the security guard brought her to the center of the floor, where she caught a glimpse of the government officials standing behind the panes of bullet proof glass in the observatory.

The guard dropped her arm suddenly, and the sudden loss of support caused her legs to give out from under her and her knees slammed onto the floor. She got her gloved hands out in front of her just enough to prevent her face from hitting the floor as well.

Grahams arm slipped from underneath hers and he lost a bit of his balance trying to slow down her fall, but he quickly let her go and stood up, backing away a couple of steps.

"Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen, and Welcome to Greenwood Academy." Headmaster Riggans said from off to her right. Emma squeezed her eyes tighter and kept her head turned downward, not wanting to look at the gaggle of people here to watch her like an animal behind a glass enclosure at the public zoo.

"I hope you have already had a wonderful tour of our grounds this morning, as we are looking forward to showing you how the government's latest research has been implemented at our facility to help keep our High Risk and potential risk students under control while they are here and possibly in the future when they are released back into the regular population." He explained, his footsteps echoing through the floor and up her knees. "Emma Swan has been a high risk case here with us for nearly ten years, starting at the academy after-"

"They don't need to know my whole backstory, Headmaster Riggans" Emma said, mustering enough strength and volume to successfully interrupt his telling of her entire history to these complete strangers. She tossed her head up to get her hair away from her face and looked up at him with disdain.

The look was returned in kind with a malicious smile down at her. "Very well Ms. Swan. Emma here, as you can probably guess based off her attitude, has the gift of fire manipulation." He made air quotes around the word gift. "She can produce fire from her hands mainly, but can occasionally produce it from her feet. The talent also extends to manipulating fire that is already present. That affinity for burning things," He said, throwing another cruel smile in her direction, "is the reason she was brought to our facility."

"To keep her, and our other students and faculty members, safe while she was being brought across campus from her locked room; which you were given a tour of an example room this morning, she was outfitted in an upgraded model of the Suppressor gloves ten point six point five point two, modified to suppress shifter abilities and keep them locked in their human bodies."

Two of the security guards that were lining the walls came up from behind her and, shoving Graham further off to the side, grabbed her hands at the wrist, dragging her back up to her feet with her hands on display for the officials sitting and watching Riggan giving his grand speech.

"We use these on very high risk cases, like Ms. Swan here, when we are transporting them off or onto campus, and our newer cases that tend to be very volatile and are unable to control their abilities." Grabbing a key from inside his pocket, he came over and slipped it into the clasp at the base of her left wrist. Turning it quickly, she felt the glove loosen around her hand and sighed in relief. Some of the effects were already beginning to lessen, and the world finally came to a complete stand still around her. Riggans moved the key to the other wrist and turned it to loosen the other glove.

"Only myself and our highest level training staff have access to the keys to release these cases from the gloves. And this is only after they have proven that they have gained some control over their person, or have been properly fitted with some other form of suppression equipment." Graham came over and grabbed the gloves from her hands and took them off, moving quickly to release them and the chain around her waist.

Graham took over speaking to the group of spectators after walking a few steps back from her.

"After the initial period where these students learn how to control their powers in control rooms with specifically selected trainers who have powers to combat or diminish the effects of their powers, they are outfitted with specific suppression gear so that they are allowed to continue their course work and complete a high school or college level education while in an area that will help them gain full control over their powers. Ms. Swan has been given two bracelets that are designed to specifically suppress her ability to produce fire, but also manipulate fire that is already present. In tandem, these bracelets also suppress that ability from her bracelets work on a remote monitoring system, so they also have a remote unlocking system, meaning that no specific key is needed to unlock her set of bracelets. All personalized suppression items are on the same system."

Graham set the chains aside, while the officials leaned forward to get a better look at her bracelets. They were pretty subtle, looking like two ordinary silver bangles on her wrists, but the intricate design hid the hardware under the surface that did the work of suppressing her powers.

"We also have one of the most rigorous screening programs here for allowing students here to begin to assimilate into the real world after completing schooling here." Riggans said. "This ranges from anything to a simple application for students with low risk abilities, to a full panel interview and skills testing for students with more high risk abilities. Depending on the risks associated with each individual case, some students won't be granted a hearing and will be given notice at that time that they would be moving into a regulated community after completing their schooling here."

Emma knew where she fell under that description easily. Someone like her, with the HIGH RISK stamp all over her file and a court case against her, she would be lucky if they allowed her to live in a "Community" without her suppression bracelets. But there were days where she hoped that one day she wouldn't have to live behind walls separating her from society.

Graham started talking again, describing the training that they did to teach students to control their abilities.

Students in the younger areas of the academy got to work with coaches to master their abilities (not so much on the college side of the academy), but high risk individuals didn't get that kind of training. They were not allowed to practice their powers on their own without the supervision of one of the school's deans and no less than 3 trainers, two of whom had to have powers to counteract their own. And as Emma looked around the room again, Graham was the only one of her trainers present.

"In our demonstration for you today, we will begin with demonstrating the suppression ability of her bracelets, and then move on to displaying her abilities, so you can see exactly how extensive the suppression lies." Riggans said, gesturing to two security officers off to the side that Emma hadn't noticed when she was initially brought in.

Riggans and the guards that had been holding her backed away as these new officers approached, wearing flame retardant suits and carrying what appeared to be industrial flame throwers. Emma's eyes widened. Another two guards surged off the wall and grabbed Graham as he moved back towards the center of the room, obviously not having any knowledge of what was about to happen.

Emma barely heard Graham yelling her name as the flamethrowers roared to life and the inferno came screaming at her.

Emma dropped, curling up on herself, pressing down on her knees and throwing her arms over her head in protection and squeezing her eyes shut. The flames were even louder as they flooded over her.

Thankfully, the one thing the bracelets couldn't suppress was her immunity to fire. She could be completely surrounded in flames; as she was now, and not get a single burn. She supposed it was one of the redeeming aspects to her power.

Emma could hear the flames clearer now, hear them whispering secrets to her and only her through the roar of the inferno. They wouldn't hurt her, they were life, and warmth, and survival all in one. Only people looking to do harm could turn them into war, and death, and destruction.

And they wanted to burn.

With a click that Emma heard as clear as day amongst the whispers of the flames, her bracelets fell from her wrists. The flames were singing now, singing a song only she could understand.

Singing that she was FREE.

Inhaling deeply, Emma felt along the flames to their source, smothering out the gases and the spark that gave these flames their life. She gathered the life of the flames and pulled it inside of her as she stood, listening to the whispers of the flames as they merged. They told her the lay out of the room, the 7 guards that still stood stoik along the walls of the chamber. That Graham was 6 feet to her left, panting as he stopped struggling with the two guards who held him; Riggans, who was shocked still as she gathered her power, stopped on his way to the protective barriers along the wall below the observers box.

She cupped her right hand on top of her left, as if she were holding something precious between them and pulled the flames further inside of her until they winked out.

The room was silent as everyone waited with baited breath to see what she would do.

Emma opened her eyes, and the world burst into flame.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary** :

Ever since Emma was 13, she knew she had the ability to destroy people if she wanted to, and some days, she really wanted to. After being forced to go the the Greenwood Academy following a traumatizing event in her childhood that brought to the surface her ability to manipulate fire, she never thought she would be free of the place. So for nearly 10 years, she lived a solitary existence with the exception of her best friends, but that was all about to change.

Killian Jones had just been sentenced to attend the university campus at Greenwood Academy after an accident at sea caused him to be dishonorably discharged from Her Majesty's royal Navy and lose his hand. He doesn't know what to think about these newfound powers and what they spell for the rest of his now not-so-normal life. But a chance encounter one day has the ability to change all of that.

A story about love and redemption between two people that shows, if you have the right person beside you, you can find a light in the darkness.

 **Rating:** M

 **Content Warnings** : Mentions of Violence/Death, Brief mention of Childhood Abuse/Sexual Assault, Mild Sexual Content

 **Chapter Notes:** Chapter 3 is here! We finally get to see Killian interact with Emma a bit more and get to see more of her interactions with her friends. Also, princesse-swan posted the first picture set for this story! The artwork that she put together for this story is amazing, and I can't wait for you all to see it and like it as much as i do! Go check it out on Tumblr. On to the story!

* * *

"What the Fuck was that!" Headmaster Riggans yelled at Graham, fuming.

Through the daze of having the gloves shoved back on her, Emma looked up at the two men surrounding her. Despite the fact that she felt like throwing up again, she had to smother the urge to laugh. The headmaster's eyebrows were still smoking.

"Look, I'm a water wielder, but I can't just produce it out of thin air. Fire burns out the water in the air, making it dry. I told you that I needed water in here if we were going to be doing a demonstration. I pulled the water from the air as best I could to smother out the flames, OKAY?" Graham retorted, pulling the chain around her waist tighter than necessary, "Besides, there weren't enough trainers here in the first place, two others were supposed to be here. All we did was show them how grossly underprepared we really are at dealing with high risk students."

As soon as she saw all those people looking down at her, staring at her, she was done. She didn't want to be some science experiment or exhibit they could just gawk at whenever they pleased. She was a human being. And she had a power that could destroy them all, and it was all too happy to oblige.

 _The Flames came roaring out of her, louder and hotter than the initial wave from the flamethrowers had been. She had enough of her faculties remaining to remember to shield the security guards, who had no protection from her inferno, and to shield Graham. The initial storm bathed the room in flame, and she could feel Grahams powers beginning to push against her own. She could also tell just how grossly underprepared they were to bring her here._

 _When someone is paired with a particular coach, you begin to learn each other's weaknesses and pitfalls when it came to training and their own mastery over their powers. Even though she hadn't been paired with Graham for long, she knew that the biggest issue with him training her was that water couldn't fully extinguish fire. And no other coaches were present to help put out the inferno when the water failed. Fire could evaporate water so easily if she wanted it to._

 _And boy, did she want to. Emma wasn't out of control, she had full control over her decisions and how she wielded her flames, but she knew after this display, they were going to treat her differently, watch her closer, make sure she wasn't close to exploding again. But now that she had the opportunity to use her powers, to do something since her last pathetic training session a year ago, she was going to take advantage. She increased the temperature of the flames, looking up at that sky box, watching them sweat as she began to show them the power that lurked beneath her skin. Maybe they were right to lock her away, if only to protect the world from her wrath._

 _Emma grinned, concentrating into making the calamity of flames into something more than just a swirling current like the ocean. Clearing the area around her so the edge of the room was still bathed in flames but she was standing in a clear zone, she weaved her flames in to her weapons._

 _The flames had warned her that someone was coming at her from the right, so as quick as a snake, she formed a whip from the flames and shot it out, grabbing the guard around the ankle and taking his feet out from under him, landing him square on his back. Cuffs of blue flames burned around his wrists, ankles and throat; restraining but not burning. The guards swarmed in around her, and she met each one of them head on, throwing different weapons and shields up to fight them off, and each time restrained the guards against the ground as she took them down._

 _She released an inhuman sounding snarl as the last two of the guards came upon her. She was so focused on these guards coming at her that she didn't notice Graham behind her until it was too late. Water swarmed in as he got one arm around her torso, restraining her arms, the other clamping over her mouth and nose, pushing water into her mouth and cutting off her oxygen._

 _Blackness swirled at the edge of her vision before completely swallowing her whole._

She awoke a short time later to Riggans yelling to get the officials out of there and the gloves being shoved onto her hands, even though they hadn't gotten around to replacing her suppressor bracelets.

"Yeah, well make sure it doesn't happen again. She is on lock down until the end of the week. I will let her professors know. No training either." Riggans said, stomping off in the direction where the government officials would be congregating to do damage control.

The doors snicked shut behind him.

"Seriously Emma, what were you thinking?" Graham asked her as he grabbed her bracelets from their place in the center of the room.

Emma stayed silent as she knelt on the ground, looking down at her gloved hands. She didn't regret what she did, not even a little bit. That might be why she would never assimilate into normal society. Because she just didn't care.

Graham's booted feet came into her field of vision as he stopped in front of her, obviously waiting for an answer from her. After a couple of seconds of terse silence, she heard his sigh of defeat.

Her bracelets came into view next as he knelt down to place them around her wrists, the locking mechanism in place but not fully shut as they waited for the signal to come from the command center.

"I can't say that I don't understand Emma, because I do," as he paused, she heard the mechanism click into place on her bracelets, "But why now? You haven't shown anything like this during any of our training sessions together."

"The last time we trained was over a year ago." She commented, still not looking up at him. He hadn't released her, his hands moving from where he attached her bracelets to rest under her gloved hands where she had them in her lap.

"That can't possibly be true." Graham responded, disbelief coloring his tone.

"397 days to be exact," was Emma's retort as she looked up at his face. The room spun a bit in response to the action.

His eyebrows rose, "I had no idea, I thought we had worked together 5 months ago."

"You brought me before another group of spectators, and a different group of spectators 4 months before that. I don't necessarily think running through basic drills in front of people to make this school look good really counts as training, do you?"

Graham's gaze turned reproachful. "There are ears everywhere, it would do you well to remember that, Emma."

"I live in a glorified prison cell, I don't think I will ever forget that."

The way his eyes softened in sympathy at that statement made her drop her own eyes, asking quitely, "I would like to go back to my room now."

She felt the air shift as he stood and walked around her, slipping his arms under hers and pulling her to her feet. Holding her steady while the world once again began to spin around her, they waited while another security guard was sent in to help escort her to her room.

The trip back was uneventful, and once she was sitting on her bed in her room, Graham removed the gloves from her hands.

Emma flexed her fingers and turned her hands over as he backed away.

Graham paused by the doorway.

"I hope it was worth it." Were his parting words to her as he walked through the door and coded it shut behind him.

Emma pushed her hands against her eyes as the door locked shut.

She wasn't sure if it had been worth it as the silence began to press in on her.

Five days later, Emma was sitting in the dining hall on campus with her friends getting lunch between classes.

"You did what now?" Mary Margaret asked, eyebrows raised.

"I don't know, I just, I was just…" Emma struggled to put words to what she was feeling. "I was just over being something that they could show off and then put back onto a locked shelf once they were done and ignore until they needed to impress someone again."

Emma dropped her eyes down to her lunch, grilled cheese and onion rings, not able to deal with the pitying glances they were giving her.

"But seriously Emma, was almost burning off the headmaster's eyebrows really necessary?" David asked.

"No, that was just an added bonus, and that was the most serious thing that happened to anyone. If I had seriously hurt someone, I would probably still be locked into my room." Emma said, still not looking up.

"Ok, but I have one question, who was that hottie that was at your room this morning?" Ruby asked, a smile in her voice.

"Graham?" Emma asked back, taken aback by the question, looking up to see a salacious grin on her friend's face. "He's my coach. He was coming to unlock my room."

"Yeah, but how well do you know him? What is he like? Do you like him?"

"Whoa Ruby, what part of 'He's my coach' didn't you hear?" Emma laughed. "I wouldn't dare."

"But you have thought about it, haven't you" Ruby said, a bigger smile breaking across her face.

Emma felt the flush burning it's way up her neck.

"Emma!" Mary Margaret adomished from her place across the table, sounding more like an offended mother than her best friend.

Ruby just snickered from her place beside her, "Can't say I blame you, that man is fine."

Emma's cheeks brightened in embarrassment. Graham was good looking, she couldn't deny that. But, just like every other time she had (inappropriately) thought about Graham in that manner these last few days, a different pair of blue eyes, bright with laughter, flashed instead.

"Hey guys, class starts again in ten minutes, Emma and I have to get across campus." David said, moving to pick up his book bag from the ground. Emma couldn't have been more thankful in that moment.

"Fine, I will let it go for now, but don't think that we are done with this conversation Emma." Ruby said, wagging her finger up at her as Emma moved to grab her bag from beside her.

Grabbing the half of the sandwich that she hadn't finished, Emma crumpled up the rest of the trash in front of her.

"Sure we will Ruby," Emma said as she put her bag over her shoulder and followed David out of the dining hall, throwing her trash out as she did.

"I owe you one." Emma commented as soon as they were out of the building.

"No you don't, you have spared me many a time from an embarrassingly sexual conversation with Ruby about Mary Margaret." David commented, shuddering at the memory.

Emma chuckled as the memories flashed before her eyes. Ruby had been relentless at grilling her new friends about their newly founded relationship when she joined the group; which had lead to some very embarrassing, not to mention uncomfortable, conversations for everyone involved.

She shook her head while laughing, "Well, I can't say you're-"

"Hey! Watch ou-"

Emma; not watching where she was walking, slammed into a hard body, sending both of them crashing into the ground in a tangle of limbs. She grunted as the full weight of the body covered hers.

She realized belatedly that David had been trying to stop her from running into this person.

"Emma, hey? Are you alright?" David asked.

The person on top of her, shifting their weight so not all of it was resting on her chest, laughed.

"We have to stop meeting this way Love." Killian said.

Emma groaned and opened her eyes, seeing those same sky blue eyes that had been haunting her all week staring down at her, the sides crinkled in amusement.

"Yeah, well, as you can tell, watching where I am walking is not a strong suit of mine." She said as he lifted himself off of her, then extended that same gloved hand back down to help her up.

She took it gratefully.

"Not something that I would fault you for at this time Lass, it has created quite the interesting run in both times." He said as he pulled her to her feet, steadying her by placing his blunted wrist at her elbow.

David was looking at her curiously.

"Killian, this is my friend David. David, this is Killian." She said by way of an introduction.

"Pleasure, how do you two know each other again?" David asked, looking between the two of them.

"I had the pleasure of running into Swan the other week, as she was hopping through rain puddles on her way back home, I suppose. Got us both soaking wet." Killian said, gesturing to her.

Emma flushed hotly, ducking her head.

"And I wasn't watching where I was going that time either, so I guess the blame for both falls rests on me right now." Emma said.

"You ran into him twice?" David asked, looking at her in disbelief.

"I'm not too worried about it." Killian said nonchalantly, preventing her from answering.

"Where are you from Killian?" David inquired, thankfully changing the conversation from her poor observation skills.

"Coventry, England. Originally from a different area of Great Britain, but my brother and I moved to Coventry to live with extended family when I was very young."

"Did you transfer here from one of the other academies?" Emma asked, genuinely curious as to how he came to be so far away from his family.

Killian scratched behind his ear awkwardly, looking uncomfortable with the direction the conversation was heading in.

"No, but they didn't want to send me to any of the schools in England." He mumbled, eyes dropping down to his feet.

Emma immediately felt bad. She didn't like talking about how she came to be at Greenwood, so she could imagine explaining how they came to one of these schools would be uncomfortable for others.

She reached out and placed her hand just above his stumped wrist.

Killian's eyes darted up to hers, surprised.

"I'm sorry for asking, I know how it can be not to really want to talk about these kinds of things." Emma stated, keeping her tone low. It wasn't that she didn't want David to hear, but there were some things that someone whose gift was only super strength couldn't understand.

Killian gave her a small quirk of his lips, a shadow of the full smile that was on his lips only minutes ago. But when he caught her gaze drifting down to those very lips, that small smile grew into something that Emma could only describe as infuriating.

"Well, I must be off, class and all that. It was a pleasure meeting you Dave." Killian said, extending his hand again to shake David's. "Until next time Swan."

Killian brushed past her; unnecessarily close if Emma was honest, his shoulder brushing hers as he went on his way across campus, heading in the direction of the science hall.

"He seems nice." David said, snapping her out of watching Killian as he walked away from them across campus.

She turned back to David. "Yeah, he does. I don't think I would want to subject him to Ruby though."

David laughed, "Yeah, I don't see how that would go well. But what makes you think that there would ever be an opportunity to ever have them meet in the first place?"

Emma looked over at him, since they had started back walking towards the arts hall. He was smirking. "Oh, Come on! Not you too!"

David's laugh intensified. "It was written all over your face. You thought he was cute."

"OK DAD, what does that have to do with anything?"

"It means I'm happy for you, whatever this means for you." He said as they brushed passed a handful of students that were exiting the doors of Alexander Hall and into the main lobby. Emma rolled her eyes at the statement.

"Well, all I know about this guy is the same as you, that is name is Killian Jones and he is from Coventry, England. Can't really do much with that."

"It doesn't necessarily mean much that you don't know that much about a person to start off. That comes with time." David said as he pulled to a stop in front of his classroom.

A couple of students moved around them to get into the doors, giving Emma a wide berth as they did.

Emma ducked her head to avoid the looks they gave her.

"He also didn't do that." David commented quietly, noting her reaction. "Killian isn't afraid of you, maybe you shouldn't be afraid of what this could mean with him."

Tucking her hair back behind her ear in a nervous habit that David also noted, Emma shook her head at him.

"I don't know David, you know I don't really do dating. Besides, he hasn't noticed my bracelets yet either. I will see you after class." She said, cutting the conversation short. She waved to him as she turned to head down the hall towards the art studio.

David was the only one out of her group that knew that she didn't really have class during this time.

Going to the art studio was a place for her to relax and just be, without having the walls push in on her like if she was trying to relax in her prison cell of a room. She also enjoyed spending time in the library, but during the normal class hours, the building was too full of other students, and no where was private enough for her to just sit and study.

While she had finished the painting of baby Alexandria while she was on her lockdown for the week, she was itching to keep painting, to try and find some way to slow her mind down.

She didn't know what was getting into her friends lately. Okay, maybe not Ruby, but definitely David. She didn't get why they were suddenly hounding her about her personal life. The last week was already reminder enough that she really didn't do well with trying to be "normal", she didn't really want to force that upon anyone else.

And sitting down in front of an easel for a bit and putting paint onto canvas was a way for her to stop her mind from spinning. She grabbed a blank canvas and pulled it tight over its frame, moving to place it on the easel in the corner of the room that she had claimed for herself.

She then turning and looked at the wall of paint colors, trying to find some inspiration to start her work. A light, sky blue on the far side of the wall caught her eye, and she scowled.

While she had just run into Killian, and David had made fun of her for being painfully obvious about her maybe-there-feelings for him, she didn't want him infiltrating this quiet place of hers just yet.

But after the image of Killian's laughing blue eyes faded from her mind, another image, inspired by that same shade of sky blue, flashed.

A woman, made of blue flames, rising from the ashes of her enemies, sword in hand, ready to lay down more justice.

And with that image solidly in her mind, Emma grabbed the paint off the wall, and set to work.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary** : Ever since Emma was 13, she knew she had the ability to destroy people if she wanted to, and some days, she really wanted to. After being forced to go to Greenwood Academy following a traumatizing event in her childhood that brought to the surface her ability to manipulate fire, she never thought she would be free of the place. So for nearly 10 years, she lived a solitary existence with the exception of her best friends, but that was all about to change. Killian Jones had just been sentenced to attend the university campus at Greenwood Academy after an accident at sea caused him to be dishonorably discharged from Her Majesty's royal Navy and lose his hand. He doesn't know what to think about these newfound powers and what they spell for the rest of his now not-so-normal life. But a chance encounter one day has the ability to change all of that. A story about love and redemption between two people that shows, if you have the right person beside you, you can find a light in the darkness.

 **Rating** : M

 **Content Warnings** : Mentions of Violence/Death, Brief mention of Childhood Abuse/Sexual Assault, Mild Sexual Content

 **Chapter Notes:** Chapter 4 has arrived! I thought I wouldn't actually have time to post today since I had to make a 6 hour drive back from one of my friend's weddings, but looks like I was able to get back into town sooner than I expected. Thanks to the Mods for being flexible and allowing me to post tomorrow if needed. I figured this chapter, since I haven't done so already, I would clue you into the meaning behind the stories title! It is actually a song title, "Love Lies" by Khalid and Normani. I found the lyrics of the song to fit so well to this story that I couldn't think of a better chapter title than that song.

This chapter is actually from Killian's point of view, so we get to peak into his head and find out a little bit about what he is thinking about Greenwood academy and his thoughts on Emma as well! Thanks again as always to my beta daveyjacobsthepotterhead and my artist princesse-swan, I couldn't have asked for two better collaborators on this project!

Enjoy!

 **Chapter 4**

Killian hated this god forsaken school, or whatever the hell they decided this glorified prison was supposed to be.

He hated that he was sent here after his hearing with the Royal Navy.

That he was now half a world away from his brother.

And he hated that he didn't have control over his own life anymore.

Ever since the incident that got him marshalled by the Navy, dishonorably discharged, and exiled to this rubbish school, he had been decidedly unhappy with the direction that his life was spiraling.

But then again, in comparison to that, maybe sitting through his Introductory Biology course was the least horrible thing that he could be doing right now.

Shuffling his notebook around to try and start a new page while the professor droned on about the Krebs cycle seemed to create an unnecessary amount of noise. Still not used to only operating with one hand, and Greenwood not having approved the production of a working prosthetic hand for him, Killian found the most frustrating things to be something that used to be easy before he lost his hand.

And the way the glove that they had fitted his other hand with didn't make life any easier, since he didn't have the fine motor skills that he was used to. But then again, ever since they fitted it; and removed those horrible iron gloves that made his already concussed head spin and stomach flip, he hadn't felt a single rumbling of that oozing darkness inside him.

The darkness that had blotted out the world that day and obscured everything on that ship-

Killian stopped that thought in its tracks. He wasn't going to dwell on what had gotten him stuck here in the first place. Scrambling to get the rest of the cycle written down in his notebook, he tried to focus back on the lecture in front of him.

That was a good thing at least, that he was afforded the opportunity to go to school and get a university degree. Since he had followed Liam's footsteps into the Navy eight years ago, he had thought occasionally about stepping back a bit and going to university and getting his degree. But what had stopped him was not necessarily knowing what he wanted to spend the rest of his life doing, because whenever he looked into his future, he always saw himself spending his life at sea, traveling the world with his brother.

Glory for the Jones Brothers.

Killian sighed. Not anymore.

The professor called lecture to a close at that point, assigning the reading for the next class later in the week. Killian sighed again and placed his pen down, scrubbing his gloved hand over his eyes.

Another frustration about this damnable place, he couldn't even feel the skin of his own hand anymore, because the glove wouldn't come off.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't find a way to remove it himself, and they hadn't said anything to him when they gave it to him about not being able to remove it.

Then again, he didn't really care at the time, he just wanted those….poisonous gloves removed.

Working to shove all of his stuff in his bag, Killian got stuck waiting for the rest of the students in his row of the lecture pit to exit so he could stand and just dump everything into the bottom of his bag.

He could sort through it again when he got back to the prison cell they called his dorm room.

Throwing his bag over his shoulder, Killian watched as the last of the students in the pit filed out ahead of him, some throwing a weary glance at his glove. Apparently word traveled fast around this school as to who came in with some new, scary power; and that immediately made others weary of him, and others like him he supposed.

"Is everything alright Mr. Jones?" Professor Hopper asked from the front of the lecture pit.

Killian nodded his head yes in return, not really feeling like giving an oral response, and turned to head up the stairs out of the lecture pit.

"Just give them time Mr. Jones, new students take some time to get used to." Killian paused at the words, shoulders and back tensing he was sure was meant to be reassuring.

Killian did arrive at the school a few weeks into the term, and while many professors had been very accommodating to him having extra time to make up the course work, since he was stuck here during the school breaks, the students hadn't been as receptive. Shaking his head again, he made it up the last few steps and pushed his way out of the doors leading out of the pit and into the lobby.

He paused outside of the building, wondering where to go next. He didn't have any more classes for the day, but he also didn't want to spend the time holed up in his dorm room doing nothing.

As he was contemplating what to do, Killian spotted a familiar blonde head walking through the throng of students towards the library.

Smiling, Killian increased his pace to try and catch up with her.

He watched as she ducked into the front doors of the library, catching her headed to the right as the glass doors closed behind her. Killian finally made his way up the steps and into the building.

He hadn't been to the library often since he started at the school, so he didn't realize the sheer size of the space when he walked in after her.

To the right of the main lobby was a large study room, with dozens of tables and computers and groups of students studying. He paused just inside the entrance, hearing a handful of students grumble as they moved around him into the room, and scanned the space for her.

After a few minutes of searching, he finally spotted her at a table by herself in the corner, headphones over her ears and hunched over a notebook. Killian began weaving his way across the room over to her table, ignoring the glances that the students gave him as he walked past.

He set his bag down loudly on the floor next to hers and scrapped the chair out across from her.

She started, her pen scratching across the page of her journal, and she looked up at him, surprised.

She moved to pause her music and shifted her headphones off her ears. "Killian, this is a surprise."

"Mind if I join you love?" He asked, gesturing to the chair he had just pulled out.

"Not at all." She said, then looked down at the journal in front of her and scowled.

Killian looked down as he took his seat and saw the drawing that she had been working on was now marred by a harsh line of ink straight across the center of the entire page. "Terribly sorry about that, if I would have known what you were working on I wouldn't have startled you that way."

"I wasn't entirely happy with the direction it was going anyway, so maybe it was for the best." She commented, shrugging. She made to turn the page in her notebook to a fresh page when he reached out and placed his hand on her wrist to stop her.

She jerked her hand back from his as if she had been shocked. He tried not to take the action as a slight against him.

"Mind if I take a look?" Killian asked, gesturing to her notebook.

"Umm, yeah, sure." Emma mumbled, rubbing at the bracelet on her wrist.

Eyeing her warily, seeing how jumpy she was with him all of a sudden, he slowly turned her notebook around so the bottom of the page was facing him. She had the rough outline of a woman, reaching her hand up towards the sky to grasp at something. It looked like it was turning out to be something marvelous, but he had unfortunately ruined it.

"It looks great Swan, if I hadn't dropped in and ruined it like that it would have probably turned out to be amazing." he said, passing the notebook back to her.

"The proportions were all off, and I don't really like the way she is standing anyway, so maybe-"

"It really does look like something great, you have a lot of talent Emma." She ducked her head as a beautiful blush spread across her cheeks.

"Thanks Killian, what are you doing in the library?" She asked, then cringed. "Sorry, that came out wrong, I didn't mean for it to sound that way."

"It's okay, I was just looking for somewhere else to study besides my dorm room." He said.

"Me too, that happens a lot more often than you would think." Emma said, flipping the page of her notebook. "What are you studying?"

"Biology, Dr. Hopper was going over the Krebs cycle today and I have to admit, I didn't listen as well as I should have. We have a test coming up next week that I will most certainly fail if I don't make any progress." Killian said, working to pull his textbook out of his bag. "What about you?"

"Not necessarily studying, just wanting to get out of my dorm. Also, my friends know that I don't want to be bothered if I'm here." Emma said nonchalantly.

Killian thought over that phrase for a second. He hadn't had the time to make many friends at this school yet, but he didn't really know if he had a place that he liked to go when he didn't want to be bothered.

There really wasn't any kind of personal space when you are deployed on a vessel in the middle of the ocean with 300 other men; so he supposed he wasn't used to having a placed he could necessarily call his own without having to share it with anyone.

Maybe that was why his private quarters here bothered him so much.

The fact that she said she wished to be alone earlier clanged through him again. "Would you like me to leave you alone then?"

He would leave her alone if she wished, but he fervently hoped otherwise.

Emma shook her head at him, "No, you're fine," She said, "I know that you don't have some ulterior motive to drop in on me like they sometimes do."

He quirked an eyebrow.

"They just don't get me sometimes, I guess." Emma said, "They bug me about things that they all would worry about, but that don't necessarily apply to me. Sorry, I'm not making any sense."

She continued to rub at her wrists in a nervous manner while she was rambling. Once she realized he was watching her, she pulled her shirt sleeves back down to cover the bracelets at her wrists.

Killian reached his hand out tentatively towards her wrist, pushing back her sleeve and lightly touching; or he hoped it was a light touch, he couldn't tell through the glove, the bracelet at her wrist. "What are these?"

She looked down at them morosely, a look of longing in her eyes, "You obviously haven't been here very long if you don't know what these are." Showing him both the bracelets on her delicate wrists, she continued. "They are suppression bracelets. They knock my powers down to a level where I can't access them anymore."

"You say that like you want to be able to use them again." He stated, a question hidden in the phrase.

If he had the chance, he would never feel that rolling darkness under his skin ever again. He didn't like feeling that out of control and lost as he did that first time his powers manifested.

"How much do you know about me Killian?" She asked, wary. He didn't know what to make of the sudden walls going up in her expression. He didn't think he had said anything wrong.

"No more than you have told me love." He said honestly, trying to dispel the sudden tension.

"My powers come from fire, and I miss the warmth and life that the flames brought. The safety and protection they made me feel." She looked saddened as she spoke, like she was talking about a long lost friend. He said as much to her.

"Yeah, I suppose I am." She gave him a sad smile, wrapping her arms around herself a bit. Maybe that was how she tried to feel that warmth that the flames gave her again.

"Well, now that I've taken this conversation in a horribly morose direction, I suppose I must propose a new topic of discussion. You said you understood the Krebs Cycle?"

She hadn't, he remembered belatedly, but he hoped she would be able to help.

Emma tucked her hair behind her right ear, and nodded her head. "Yeah, what didn't you understand again?" Leaning towards him, she waited patiently as he worked to get the textbook open to the right section.

Turning the book around to face her, he pressed down on the binding with his shortened arm. The Diagram splayed out between the two pages was fully displayed for her. Gesturing to a section he explained how what Dr. Hopper had told them during his lecture differed from how the textbook explained it.

She gave him a small smile as he rambled on in his explanation. The haunted look still hadn't left her eyes, but Killian vowed to himself that he would do everything in his power to keep that look from her eyes as long as she let him.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary** : Ever since Emma was 13, she knew she had the ability to destroy people if she wanted to, and some days, she really wanted to. After being forced to go to Greenwood Academy following a traumatizing event in her childhood that brought to the surface her ability to manipulate fire, she never thought she would be free of the place. So for nearly 10 years, she lived a solitary existence with the exception of her best friends, but that was all about to change. Killian Jones had just been sentenced to attend the university campus at Greenwood Academy after an accident at sea caused him to be dishonorably discharged from Her Majesty's royal Navy and lose his hand. He doesn't know what to think about these newfound powers and what they spell for the rest of his now not-so-normal life. But a chance encounter one day has the ability to change all of that. A story about love and redemption between two people that shows, if you have the right person beside you, you can find a light in the darkness. **Rating** : M **Content Warnings** : Mentions of Violence/Death, Brief mention of Childhood Abuse/Sexual Assault, Mild Sexual Content

 **Chapter Notes:** Chapter 5 is here folks! This is actually one of my favorite chapters in this entire work so I am excited for you to read it as well!

Check out the amazing art work that my artist princesse-swan did for both chapter 3 an this one on tumblr. Thanks again as always to my beta daveyjacobsthepotterhead for taking this work and helping me turn it into something great. You are the literal best.

Chapter 5

Emma sat down on the edge of the wall surrounding the plant beds at the entrance to campus from the dorms. Unwrapping her grilled cheese and tomato sandwich, she looked out at the rows of dorm buildings lining the main walk onto the academic campus.

The sidewalks were abandoned, with nary a soul on campus to be found. Many of the students went home during the fall break about halfway through the term, and Emma took advantage of some time just to herself that she didn't have to spend in her room.

While she enjoyed time with her friends while they were on campus, she did enjoy having the campus pretty much to herself during the breaks where everyone who wasn't high risk got to go home. If she remembered correctly, after Elsa moved into a community in Alaska last summer, there were about 17 other students that had a full run of the campus to themselves.

Losing Elsa as a friend had been hard. She had arrived at the academy after Emma had, and could have been considered her polar opposite in every way. While Emma burned hot, Elsa burned cold, with extensive gifts of ice and snow, she proved quite the challenge for the staff to contain, considering that she could freeze off her suppression gear and not be affected by them at all. She was someone that Emma could relate to, someone who could understand the beast that prowled beneath her skin, and losing that confidant last semester had been something that she truly hadn't fully bounced back from yet.

Taking a bite out of her sandwich, Emma just sat and watched the leaves fall from the trees.

o.O.o

Killian didn't know what to think about how quiet the campus had become once fall break had begun.

Yes, he had been told that all the students who weren't high risk students would be allowed to visit home for the two weeks that classes were on break, but he hadn't realized how truly empty the campus would feel.

He spent the first two days of the break wandering around campus to see who was around.

A few of the administration members were lingering around with the multitude of security officers watching the campus, but he had only run into a handful of other students.

There was one gentleman named Eric, who had the power to create storms out of thin air. He was a perfectly nice guy, but after living 6 years of his life on a boat, he decided not to trust anyone who could sink a ship on a whim.

Another woman named Cruella had the ability to control people with her voice. How they regulated that power, Killian couldn't fathom, but it was probably for the best.

On the third day, it seemed as though he was in luck.

While wandering through the abandoned floors of the library, he stumbled upon Emma bent over another drawing book sketching.

Thankfully she didn't have any headphones over her ears this time, so he didn't have any chance of ruining her artwork, but he still made the effort to make a bit of noise against the door as he walked in.

Emma looked up at him in shock.

"Killian, what are you doing here?" She asked.

"Wandering through the library, but I don't suppose that is what you meant by the question." He stated. He had never mentioned to her that he was a high risk student before and Killian had to imagine that this was a bit of a shock.

"I am so sorry, that completely came out wrong. However, that was what I had meant by the poorly phrased question." Emma said, tucking her hair behind her ear as she flushed in what Killian presumed was embarrassment.

"It's fine Swan, truly. I know you didn't mean anything horrible by the remark."

"I am a bit curious though, what kind of powers do you have that make you a high risk student?" Emma said, pushing her notebook to the side and leaning towards him.

He caught a glance at the notebook as it turned towards him slightly, and he grasped at the chance to change the subject. He didn't even like thinking about his powers, so he **really** didn't want to talk about them with someone else.

"Emma, this is amazing."

It was, truly. Drawn out on the page was the image of a woman, long black hair hanging over her shoulders, one bloody hand clutching a dagger to her chest and the other grasping a heart. There was no color to the design yet, but she had shaded in where the blood was likely soaked into the woman's hair and dress. The entire thing was hauntingly beautiful.

"I know an attempt to distract me when I hear it." Emma said.

"I wasn't trying to distract you, I genuinely like your art." He retorted.

"I also am pretty good at knowing when someone is lying to me. And while you do like peeking at my sketches, you were lying that this wasn't a distraction." Emma said, looking adorably smug when she said it.

He couldn't help but smile in response. "Fine," Killian said, rolling his eyes. "Maybe I was trying to get you off my tale, but I would prefer not to talk about this. It's not something I am truly comfortable with and, while I do enjoy your company and think of you fondly like a friend, I don't think this is something I can tell you about."

Emma stared at him for a long moment before nodding her head.

"I can accept that, there are things about myself, and events that have happened to me that I don't talk about to anyone else. I can understand needing time to process things that are traumatic before being able to open up to someone else." She said.

"Since we aren't talking about anything related to our powers or our past," She said, pausing to look up at him meaningly. "Why don't you tell me something that I probably wouldn't know about you." She said.

When Emma was smiling at him like that, He couldn't deny her anything.

"I actually am a bit artistic myself. I do the occasional doodle." Killian said.

Emma's eyebrows rose in surprise. "Really, I wasn't expecting that."

"There are a lot of things about me that you wouldn't expect Swan." He said, relishing the flush that spread across her face in response to his quirked eyebrow and tongue in cheek.

"Alright Killian, let's see what you can do." She said, pulling blank sheets from her book for the both of them and handing him a pencil.

"What do you want me to draw for you Love?" He asked, taking the pencil from her and working to move the paper into the position he wanted it in with his other wrist.

"Whatever inspires you right now." She said.

He looked up into her bright green eyes and knew exactly what he wanted to draw.

"How long are you going to give me?" Killian asked.

"Let's say, finish in an hour. Whatever you can finish by that point in time is what you've got." Emma said.

"Challenge Accepted." He said, turning to his work and beginning his attempt at replicating perfection.

o.O.o

Emma and Killian were spending the afternoon out in the courtyard between the college campus and the lower campus when they heard it.

Killian stopped mid-sentence in his retelling of how his brother got stuck by the back of his shorts in a tree when they were younger and cocked his head.

"Swan, does that sound like crying to you?" He asked.

Emma listened harder, facing further towards the lower campus where Killian was pointing towards. Sure enough, it did sound like someone was crying.

She stood, gesturing for Killian to follow, heading towards the lower campus.

Normally, students on the college campus were not allowed to venture onto the lower campus, but since it was a school break, students were allowed to roam the grounds as they pleased.

They walked past the first handful of buildings before they could finally locate the sound.

Curled into a ball between two of the buildings and crying into his hands was a boy with a mop of brown hair.

The young boy could have been no more than 12, which was incredibly young for someone to come to the academy.

But then again, Emma had arrived around that age as well.

Emma flashed back to one of her first days on the campus, reeling from being separated from her family and forced to move halfway across the country to a place she didn't know and getting surrounded by people she was unfamiliar with.

She had also spent a few nights crying from the loss. The loss of her brother, the loss of her mother, the loss of the only home she had known.

The loss of her normal life.

She turned to see Killian watching her with a speculative gaze. She only shook her head at him.

Turning back to the little boy, she walked slowly towards him, since he still hadn't noticed them standing there.

"Hey, are you okay?" She asked, crouching down in front of him.

The boy visibly started, looking up at her in surprise.

"What? Who are you?" He asked.

"My name is Emma, and this is Killian," She said, gesturing behind her at Killian, who was still standing back from them at a good distance.

She noted that his blunt wrist was tucked behind his back.

"Are you okay?" She asked again.

The boy sniffled, nodding his head in agreement even though a few fat tears still escaped his eyes to fall down his cheeks.

"What's your name?"

"Henry," He said, sticking his hand out in greeting.

"Well Henry, it is a pleasure to meet you. When did you start your stay here?" Emma asked. He didn't seem the type to be a new high risk student since he didn't have any suppression items on that she could see, but you never know.

"My mom dropped me off this morning." Henry said, sniffing loudly again, his lower lip quivering.

"Well, it sounds like you could use a friend, would you like to hang out with me and my friend for the rest of the day?" Emma asked.

Nodding his head, he stood up and fell into her extended arms.

He shook a little with quiet cries, and Emma rubbed his back in a soothing manner.

Killian came around in front of her, and placed his hand on the back of Henry's shoulders and rubbed slow circles as well.

"You know Henry, I remember my first night that I spent away from all my family." Killian said.

Henry pulled away from her slightly, turning to look at Killian.

"Really, I thought it was the most terrifying thing that could ever happen to me at the time." Killian admitted. "Would you like to hear about it?"

"Is it a scary story?" Henry asked, standing fully away from Emma.

"Not really, it only seemed like it at the time. Why don't you come for a walk with Emma and I, we had a lunch sitting out in the courtyard." Killian stood, extending his gloved hand for Henry to take.

Emma smiled, watching Killian lead Henry towards their impromptu picnic sight, weaving an exaggerated story of a 20 year old man sleeping away from home for the first time, and crying himself to sleep.

Killian winked over his shoulder at her once he got Henry laughing at his story.

With that wink, Emma felt something she was pretty sure would grow into love start blooming under her breast.

o.O.o

Killian was walking around campus outside.

It was pretty close to the time he went to bed, but it was fixing to storm out, lightning streaking across the sky and thunder rolling in across the campus, and it made him restless.

The barrier surrounding the campus kept out all supposed threats against their safety, but unfortunately, couldn't prevent the rain from falling on them.

His thoughts were occupied with thoughts of Henry, that young lad they had found on campus earlier.

Emma had told Killian that he was a bit of an anomaly when he mentioned that his gifts had only just manifested at 25 years, but he didn't know they could start showing that early.

The young lad hand only just turned 12 a few weeks ago, a fact the young lad had divulged to them while they were splitting ham and cheese sandwiches and cheetos in the middle of campus during the day.

He had something relatively minor as a gift, something that doesn't require him to stay on campus during school breaks like him and Emma have to.

When they revealed that fact to the lad, it seemed to turn his entire spirit around, from sniffeling and sad to bright and chipper.

Almost a bit too bright, considering the lad started glowing on them.

He was so lost in his thoughts that he was pretty spooked when he heard a voice off to his left.

"Killian?"

He whirled around, and found Emma sitting on a low wall surrounding a garden in the yard.

"Emma, what are you doing out here?" he asked, tucking his hand into his pocket as he made his way over to her.

"I could ask you the same thing." She said, watching as he came over and sat down next to her.

"Couldn't sleep, decided to go for a bit of a walk." He said, shrugging his shoulders a bit.

"Me neither." Emma said, pulling one of her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around it, resting her chin on her knee.

"Yeah, but I couldn't sleep because of the storms, I don't think that was the case for you. What's vexing you love?"

Emma turned to look at him, but once she noticed him looking at her, she turned her face away.

A flash of lightning across the sky lit up her face for a split second, and Killian could have sworn he saw tear tracks tracing down her cheeks.

It wasn't until after the rumble of thunder rolled over campus a couple of seconds later that she began to talk.

"I started at the academy here when I was 13, not much older than Henry is. I guess seeing him today brought back some memories of when I first arrived here."

"I can't even imagine what that would have been like." He said, when it became obvious that she wasn't going to continue. It was so unlike her to open up about anything to him when it came to how she started at the academy, so he was going to have to take it as it came.

"It was lonely." She said, still not looking at him.

Killian watched a few more bolts of lightning flash across the sky, the air becoming damp and oppressive as the storm continued its advance towards them.

Neither one of them made any move to leave and avoid getting poured on, but Killian wasn't inclined to leave her alone.

He never could leave her like this.

"I lost everything. Henry gets to keep his family, he gets to go back to his mom, see his dad, and play with his brothers and sister. I got none of that." She looked over to him, her eyes rimmed in red, and something in Killian's chest tightened.

She had obviously been out here a while before he had happened upon her.

"My mother disowned me, my father was already long gone, and I haven't seen my older brother, my best friend and partner in crime, in person in almost ten years. I didn't get to see him get married and I didn't get to see the birth of my niece. And it's not fair."

Something in her voice cracked when she said "fair", and Killian wanted desperately to pull her into his arms and give her a hug, but she was so closed off that he didn't think it would be well received.

At that moment, the heavens decided to open up and the rain came pouring down on the two of them.

Killian looked up at the sky, the rain hitting his face with wet plops that made water run into his eyes and he blinked rapidly to clear them.

Turning to look at Emma, he felt the rain continue to soak into his hair and shirt, and he wondered absently if it would ruin the mechanics in his glove getting them this wet.

Getting a good look at Emma for a second, he had to choke back on a laugh.

"What?" She said, hearing his choked off laugh and turning to face him after looking up at the storm clouds above them as well.

"Sorry, I don't mean to laugh, truly love. But you're steaming." Indeed, little wiffs of steam were rising from where the rain was splattering down onto her bare skin.

He pressed his lips together in an effort to keep himself under some measure of control.

But it seemed to be in vain as a large smile broke out on her face, wiping away the lingering sadness in her expression from their conversation.

"Did I never mention that I may run a bit warmer than a normal person?" She said, chuckling a bit as she asked him.

"No, but that might be a useful thing, considering that I am now soaking wet and cold." Killian laughed.

"Oh no you don't, that is entirely your own fault." Emma said, moving away as he leaned towards her, but it wasn't in fear of him. No, she could tell he was playing with her.

"Come here and warm me up Emma!" He said, lunging after her.

She leapt off of the wall with stunning speed, darting across the yard in a blur of damp blond hair trailing behind her.

And as he chased her around, moving after her and sliding around in the mud enough to cause them both to burst into further hysterics, something warm bloomed up in his chest.

It felt like the first ray of sunshine after a storm, and he wanted to hold onto that feeling as long as he could.

Wrapping his arms around her from behind as they both went sliding through another patch of mud, Killian pulled her close as he tried to keep them both upright.

They were both laughing as he turned her around to look at him, her arms coming around him in turn.

Something in her expression changed, some of the laughter and lightness transitioning into something curious.

His eyebrows pinched together, getting ready to ask her what she was thinking about when Emma pushed up on her toes and pressed her lips to his.

It was like that first ray of sun, and when the seas are calm and the sky is blue, and that first bite of fresh summer fruit after a long, cold and dark winter.

Her lips were soft against his, and he pressed back, tightening his arms around her and forming his lips more firmly with hers.

They broke apart with a start when a peel of thunder began right above them.

She gave him a tentative smile, and took his hand. "Come on sailor, let's get you out of the rain."

o.O.o

The rain had fried some of the electronics in his glove, and he couldn't move his fingers the next day, but he wouldn't have changed that night for anything.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary** : Ever since Emma was 13, she knew she had the ability to destroy people if she wanted to, and some days, she really wanted to. After being forced to go to Greenwood Academy following a traumatizing event in her childhood that brought to the surface her ability to manipulate fire, she never thought she would be free of the place. So for nearly 10 years, she lived a solitary existence with the exception of her best friends, but that was all about to change. Killian Jones had just been sentenced to attend the university campus at Greenwood Academy after an accident at sea caused him to be dishonorably discharged from Her Majesty's royal Navy and lose his hand. He doesn't know what to think about these newfound powers and what they spell for the rest of his now not-so-normal life. But a chance encounter one day has the ability to change all of that. A story about love and redemption between two people that shows, if you have the right person beside you, you can find a light in the darkness. **Rating** : M **Content Warnings** : Mentions of Violence/Death, Brief mention of Childhood Abuse/Sexual Assault, Mild Sexual Content **Chapter Notes:** Chapter 6 is here folks! This one is a bit shorter but it sets up the next chapter very nicely, so I am super excited for you all to read that next week.

Thanks as always to my beta daveyjacobsthepotterhead and my artist princesse-swan who has some more amazing art coming your way for this story! Enjoy and happy Daylight savings!

Chapter 6

Unfortunately, all good things had to come to an end.

Or, that was what Emma was currently thinking.

Fall break had ended, and that meant that the campus was once again swarmed through with students at every hour, a complete difference from the quiet nights she had spent out with Killian in the courtyards.

It also meant that her friends had come back on campus, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but Emma was truly feeling that way as she was getting bombarded with questions from her friends.

Ruby and Mary Margaret probably had good intentions, since they always made a point to ask her what she did over her break stuck on campus before they launched into their own stories about their travels instead.

They did at least act like they were excited to see some of her new drawings.

But she was trying to keep the fact that she had truly grown fairly close to Killian away from her friends, because they were way too noisy on the subject in general.

Ruby seemed to have a knack for picking up that she was lying to them though because she kept poking at it.

"I still don't believe you Emma, I think you are keeping something from us about how you spent this break!" She taunted, smiling wickedly at her over her burger.

Emma grumbled into her bowl of broccoli cheddar soup. "I don't know what you think I am hiding from you Ruby. I worked on some new pieces of art in the library, met a new student on the lower campus, and got rained on one night while I couldn't sleep."

"You are telling the truth when it comes to that aspect of the story, yes. You did do all of that over the break. I just think that you aren't telling us the whole of it." She retorted.

Emma fought the urge to cringe at the accurate statement. She moved her gaze away from the look her friends were giving her and scanned around the dining hall. They were in a fairly quiet area of the hall, and thankfully not a lot of people were milling around by them while she was getting the third degree.

A familiar mop of black hair stood out in the crowd and blue eyes met hers from across the room.

Shit.

Killian started making his way across the room towards them and she pleaded with whatever beings were listening that Killian would get the message and turn around and head away from them and save her from this torture.

He did not.

But, it seems, she did have a bit of luck in her corner after all.

"Hey, Mary Margaret. Did you get the information for the assignment that we have due in biology next week? Dr. Hopper mentioned the assignment in my lecture but didn't actually tell us what it was about." He said in way of greeting.

Her friend, who had mainly been silent throughout the whole ordeal so far, nodded her head at him.

"Yeah, I think I should have it in my notes, let me check." Mary Margaret said, reaching to pick up her book bag from the ground.

"Hey Emma, how have you been?" Killian asked her while he waited for Mary Margaret.

"I've been good. How have you been?" She asked, hoping it sounded casual. She didn't want to tip Ruby off.

But, unfortunately, she always seemed to underestimate her friend.

"Since neither one of these ladies seemed to want to take the time to introduce me, I will do it myself. Name's Ruby." She said, extending her hand at Killian.

Killian looked down at the books in his arms and then at Ruby's extended hand.

"It looks like I will have to pass on the hand shake for right now, considering i don't have one to spare." He joked. He flashed a smirk at them and Emma had to cough a laugh into her hands.

Ruby turned to look at her and raised an eyebrow. "That wasn't subtle at all. All of those years spent trying to get you to be cool around handsome boys is now a waste."

Killian threw his head back and laughed at the statement. "Really Ruby, how do you expect someone who has the ability to manipulate fire to be 'cool'?" He laughed.

Ruby cracked a smile. "I like you Killian, I think we will have to keep you for awhile." She wagged her finger at him. "I could always use another sarcastic, witty person to bounce my awesomeness off of."

"Well, considering I already work with Mary Margaret and know Emma pretty well, it shouldn't be too hard to work my way into your little group, I do have to warn you though that I won't add much time into painting nails or anything. Not really my scene."

Emma cringed. Considering she hadn't told her friends, well, anything about whatever the hell this thing was between Killian and herself, she waited for the inevitable pouncing of her friends on that morsel of information.

"Here it is." Mary Margaret said, triumphantly pulling her notebook out of her bag.

Emma breathed a sigh of relief. It also wasn't that she necessarily wanted to keep Killian a secret from them either.

It was just so rarely that she had something that she had a shred of control over that she didn't want to lose that. And this thing, however it was going to play out, seemed to be happening on her terms.

Killian never pushed. He never made her feel like control over their relationship, if it could be called that, was ever out of her hands and exclusively in his.

She saw Killian's eyes shift over to her occasionally as he listened to Mary Margaret explain what their professor had assigned them. He had noticed her uncomfortableness with the way the conversation had been heading. It also seemed like he wanted to possibly talk to her about something but didn't really want to do it in front of her friends.

"Thanks so much for that Mary Margaret. Emma, do you mind walking with me for a moment?" He asked, shifting the books around in his arms as he nodded towards one of the cafeteria exits.

"Sure." She said, pushing up from the table and shrugging into her sweater.

As she came around to his side, she reached out and grabbed a book or two off the top of his stack.

"Thanks love, I didn't realized I was going to get interrogated when I came over, otherwise I may have put them in my bag first." He commented, throwing her a smile.

She felt a small one break out across her face. "Yeah, get used to it buddy. Ruby is as ruthless as a wolf ripping into fresh meat."

Killian shuddered at her description.

"I'm not even kidding, her other form is a wolf." Emma dead panned.

"I will never stop being surprised by this place, will I?" he said, pushing out the door and keeping one foot back for her to follow him out.

"Likely not." She said. She was still surprised by things happening on campus, and she had been here for almost half of her life. "Anyway, what did you want to ask me away from the rat pack?"

Killian looked away from her and scratched behind his ear in a nervous manner that she had come to know and love. She gave him a bit of an encouraging smile when he turned back to look at her. He smiled back at her sweetly.

"You're probably going to think it's stupid because you have probably been to the thing a hundred times already," Killian said, gesturing absently with his hand after shuffling his books to rest in the crook of his other arm, "But that carnival is coming onto campus this weekend, and I was wondering if you would like to accompany me?"

"Are you asking me out on a date?" She asked, a bit surprised. No one had ever asked her out before.

"Nothing quite so formal love. I would do something much more romantic for an actual evening out," Killian said, quirking an eyebrow at her.

Emma thought back through all of her years living on campus here, and she couldn't recall a single time that she had actually gone to the traveling circus when it had come to campus.

It wasn't the typical circus anyone would think of when they thought of a big tent show, but more or less a place for people with powers to travel and perform in front of others. But she had seen some of the normal circus aspects such as the ferris wheel and lines of chance games along the walkways.

She came back from her thoughts to see Killian watching her expectantly.

"Sure, it sounds like fun." Emma said.

A bright smile lit up Killian's face, and caused her to smile back at him in return.

"Awesome, see you around then love." Killian grabbed her hand and then leaned in to kiss her cheek. Emma smiled back at him in response as he grabbed the books back out of her arms and tucked them in with the rest before walking back across campus.

Emma touched the cheek he had kissed softly, unspeakably touched by the gesture.

She shook her head to clear it as she turned to walk back to where her friends were sitting.

"What did lover boy want to ask you?" Ruby asked bluntly as Emma sat back down at the table.

"Lover Boy?" Emma asked at the same time Mary Margaret admonished their friend.

"What? He said you two were pretty close, doesn't take much to put two and two together."

"Look Ruby," Emma started, tucking her hair behind her ear. "Killian and I, I don't even think either of us know truly what this is. We are just friends right now."

"Sure you are." Ruby replied, sounding all for the world that she didn't believe Emma at all.

"When did you get to know him Emma? I know David told me that he had met Killian on campus once with you before, but that doesn't lend much time to really becoming friends with someone." Mary Margaret asked, giving Ruby one of her patented 'just drop it' looks.

Ruby rolled her eyes in response.

"I actually spent a bit of time getting to know him over school break." Emma said.

"Killian is High Risk?" Mary Margaret asked, looking shocked.

"Yeah He is. You look surprised." Emma stated.

"No, No. It's not that I'm surprised, he just doesn't seem the type." Mary Margaret said.

"But I do?" Emma said, glaring at her friend.

"Now Emma, you know that isn't what I meant."

"Than what did you mean by that Mary Margaret?"

"I just meant that Killian had never mentioned it before," Mary Margaret said, trying to back track away from the conversation.

"Yeah, well guess what Mary Margaret. Maybe people don't like talking about that kind of stuff because it makes people look at them differently. Maybe Killian doesn't like telling people that he is High Risk, considering he didn't tell me he was until he saw me over break." Emma said, growing frustrated with the direction things were heading.

Her friends knew how she felt about her high risk status, or at least she thought they did. But considering Mary Margaret's comments, maybe they didn't really.

"I'll see you guys later." She said as she grabbed her book bag from the floor next to her seat.

"Emma…" Mary Margaret said, sounding like she wanted to make an apology but not knowing how to salvage the moment.

"Just, leave it, ok?" Emma said, throwing her bag over her shoulder and walking out of the building.

Sighing in defeat, she didn't know where she wanted to go next. She didn't have any classes left for this afternoon, but didn't necessarily feel like heading back to her dorm room.

Emma thought through Killian's schedule. He didn't have any classes left for the day either if she remembered correctly. Killian had mentioned that his dorm was in the building next to hers on the second floor, so Emma thought she would give it a chance that he was back in his room.

Mind made, she started across campus towards his dorm.

Thinking back on her conversation with Mary Margaret and Ruby, that was the one thing that frustrated her most about her friends. It was the fact that they didn't seem to get that there were issues of hers that they didn't relate to.

There had been many occasions where she had been just trying to live her life to the best of her abilities while stuck on campus and had been judged, or left out, or told that she couldn't or shouldn't participate in things just because of her classification as a student.

And without even realizing it, her friends had made her feel that way on more than one occasion. Planning on going to events around campus, even though high risk students were not allowed to participate, or planning nights out on the town for open campus days when Emma wasn't able to join them.

They would act apologetic when Emma confronted them about it, or apologize for not really making plans that could include her, but Emma was left out all the same.

The only person that she had been able to relate to about these things so far had been Killian.

Pushing through the double doors of his building, she turned up the steps to head up to his floor.

The thing that was different about the dorms in the high risk building was that they weren't numbered. They were specifically assigned to each student and had their names written on placards next to the doors. Like living in a senior living facility.

Her grandmother's room had been labeled similarly when she had visited when she was younger.

Killian's door wasn't that far from the stairwell, and she knocked twice on the door, listening to see if anyone was there.

There wasn't any response right away, and Emma sighed. She was really looking forward to hanging out with him for a bit.

Just as she was turning to head back down the hall towards the stairs, Killian's door swung open.

"Emma, what are you doing here?" He asked, surprised.

"Would you believe me if I said i was avoiding people?" She asked, suddenly unsure of herself.

"I would actually, since you are the only person who knows the location of my secret lair." Killian said with a sarcastic twitch of an eyebrow.

Emma gave him a deadpan look and pointed up at his name card on the door.

"Okay, not so very secret," Killian Laughed, "but the people that you would want to avoid don't know where it is."

"Do you mind if I come in?" She asked.

"Not at all, Please join me." Killian said, stepping aside and gesturing into his room.

"Thank you," Emma replied, grateful.

His room was not that much different than hers with two twin beds; a left over from the traditional college dorms, two dressers and a desk, a small kitchen and private bathroom.

While Emma had pushed her two beds together to make an attempt at a larger mattress a few years ago, Killian had kept his separate, choosing to make both of them into a sleeping space.

"Expecting someone?" Emma joked as she set her stuff down on the unoccupied bed.

"No, but it's a familiar habit really." Killian said. At her blank expression, he explained further. "I used to be a Lieutenant in Her Majesty's Royal Navy. Having at least one other bunk mate was normal on a ship. As odd as it sounds, it's familiar."

Emma could understand that. When everything in her life was spiraling when she first arrived, she had the people who set up the rooms decorate hers like her room had been at home.

"That makes sense. And the Navy? I don't know if I ever thought you to be a military guy." Emma said.

"Well, I thought you had an inkling when you called me 'Sailor' the other night" Killian responded.

She flushed when she thought back on the night that she had kissed him for the first time.

She hadn't been planning to do that, quite the opposite really. She had been prepared to burn the night away brooding in the rain when he had materialized out of the dark, answering a prayer she didn't remember saying.

It had been a comfort having him there with her on that night, and he had gotten her to laugh when she hadn't been anywhere near happy when he found her.

And she was curious, to see how her first kiss would be. If it would have lived up to everything that the books she had read made it out to be. It had surpassed all her expectations.

It felt like she was standing in the sun on a not quite warm day, and that first burst of bubbles after drinking sparkling wine on new year's day, and that rush of joy from hearing a baby's infectious laugh.

"No, I didn't know. But you had so many nicknames for me already with love, and swan and all that, I had to come up with something of my own to call you." Emma said, coming back to the present.

"Well, it fit better than you had even thought, didn't it?" Killian said, laying back on the other bed and looking over at her from under the hair now falling into his eyes.

"It's funny how some things work out, huh?" She said. "So, how did you end up in Her Majesty's Royal Navy?" Emma asked, attempting to mimic his british accent and failing horribly.

Killian laughed in response. "That was horrible, but I will tell you how that all came about just for that sad attempt."

Killian looked pensive for a moment.

"I actually followed my brother into the Navy."

"How old is your brother?" She asked.

"Liam is 8 years my senior, so he would be about 33 by now. I followed him into the academy as soon as I completed upper school, or high school as you would call it here. Liam had already risen through the ranks a bit, he was already a sub-lieutenant by the time I had started my first days at the academy."

"That must have been nice, already having another family member in the armed forces to be able to take advice from."

"It would have been, if it weren't my brother." Killian said bitterly, looking up at the ceiling.

"How so?"

"Liam can be a right selfish ass if he wants to be. Pardon my language." Killian said, looking over at her apologetically.

"I don't mind," She said, gesturing for him to continue with his story.

"Liam has always had this attitude that he can do no wrong and anytime I do something wrong it is because I am trying to bring attention to myself in the wrong manner. I don't know when it started but that image of me being the lesser of the two Jones brothers got really hard to shake the further along i got in the academy. But he is my brother, and I love him." He said, still staring at the ceiling.

"I'm sorry he treated you that way." She said after a few moments uncomfortable silence.

"It's no trouble. I won't be seeing him again for a long while anyhow." Killian said, finally turning to look at her again. "Now, I wasn't expecting to see you again so soon after our conversation, what happened?"

Killian had always been able to read her fairly well. "Mary Margaret made a comment that came across along the lines of how you don't seem the type of person to be considered high risk and I do, and it didn't... doesn't sit well with me." Emma said.

"And nor should it, that was very rude of her."

"It was, and more the crux of the matter is that no matter how hard they try, they don't seem to get it."

"Get what?" He asked.

"They don't get what it's like to have someone look at you and not see you, to only see your power and the fear of that power that you have. And it has always been this way. They always plan things and not take into consideration whether or not I can go, or if it is something that I would have liked to have been included on." Emma vented. It felt good to be able to talk about it to someone.

She looked over at Killian, "And while you may be new to this sort of thing, and this sort of life, you already understand me better than they do. And I wanted to go somewhere I wouldn't be judged and wouldn't be subjected to an interrogation about my romantic interests."

Killian smirked, "Well, you won't be interrogated on my watch Love."

Emma smiled at him as he began to tell her more stories about his time in the Navy. They spent the entire afternoon swapping childhood stories.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary** : Ever since Emma was 13, she knew she had the ability to destroy people if she wanted to, and some days, she really wanted to. After being forced to go to Greenwood Academy following a traumatizing event in her childhood that brought to the surface her ability to manipulate fire, she never thought she would be free of the place. So for nearly 10 years, she lived a solitary existence with the exception of her best friends, but that was all about to change. Killian Jones had just been sentenced to attend the university campus at Greenwood Academy after an accident at sea caused him to be dishonorably discharged from Her Majesty's royal Navy and lose his hand. He doesn't know what to think about these newfound powers and what they spell for the rest of his now not-so-normal life. But a chance encounter one day has the ability to change all of that. A story about love and redemption between two people that shows, if you have the right person beside you, you can find a light in the darkness. **Rating** : M **Content Warnings** : Mentions of Violence/Death, Brief mention of Childhood Abuse/Sexual Assault, Mild Sexual Content **Chapter Notes:** Chapter 7! This has to be one of my favorite chapters that I have ever written for any of my stories, and I am so excited for you all to finally read it! Thanks as always to daveyjacobsthepotterhead for being a phenomenal beta and princesse-swan for being an awesome artist. Check out her chapter art for Killian out on tumblr! (I was wrong in saying it was posted last week, it was actually this week, sorry!)

I also have to thank atruthuniversally for commenting on every chapter! It makes my day reading your comments every week.

Enjoy!

Chapter 7

Emma was nervously waiting in her room for Killian to arrive to pick her up before they headed over to the circus on campus.

She told him that he didn't have to come and pick her up, that it wasn't a real date and all that jazz, but Killian insisted.

"It's all about impressions, right?" He asked.

But because of that, now she was completely over-thinking everything. It was supposed to be a bit cooler out this evening, so she was wearing a long sleeved henley with a comfortable pair of jeans and her favorite beanie. But now she was worried that what she was wearing was entirely too casual for the evening.

A knock on the door broke her out of her thoughts.

"I can hear you overthinking in there Swan, open the door." Killian said.

A smile spread across her face and she laughed a bit as she pulled the door open.

"How exactly did you know that?" Emma asked, "You couldn't even see my face."

Killian smiled at her. Emma was relieved to see that he was dressed as casually as she was, in a pair of blue jeans with a leather jacket covering what she assumed to be a long sleeved shirt. The chain for his dog tags was peeking out from the collar of his shirt.

"I don't necessarily have to see your face to know what you are thinking Emma. I just know you well enough to know that you would be nervous about this," Killian said, extending his hand out to take hers.

She turned back to grab her ID badge and dorm keys, tucking them into the back pocket of her jeans before reaching out and taking his hand.

She paused outside of her door to make sure she heard the locking mechanism slide into place before they made their way across campus to the main square between the upper and lower campuses.

Apparently they had opened both campuses up to allow them access to the circus tonight.

The Circus came to campus at least twice a year, but Emma had never once gone. She never had any reason to.

Until now it seemed.

"Did David or Mary Margaret say anything to you about where to meet them here Love?" Killian asked her.

She and Mary Margaret had made up during the days between their fight and tonight, but Emma still considered things a bit frosty between them. She hadn't entirely forgiven her for the comments that she made about high risk students looking a certain type.

"David said they were going to be arriving a bit later in the evening, he had a group project that needed to be finished tonight prior to coming. Ruby said her and Victor would be here, but didn't specify when they would be here." Emma said, trying to remember the conversation she had had with them two days prior.

"Well then, looks like we will have a bit of time just to enjoy ourselves for a bit before getting hounded by the dogs." Killian wagged his eyebrows at her, causing Emma to throw her head back and laugh.

Killian smiled at her and lead her down to the entrance of the circus tents that were sprawled out along the square. A security officer asked to see their ID badges, and gave them both a wristband that showed that they were upper campus students.

According to security, there were some tents that the younger students weren't allowed to access and they had to have a wristband to denote the difference between the two groups of students.

Killian looked at Emma after that description, shrugging his shoulders in a 'whatever' type gesture.

He took her hand back in his as they began walking down the main aisle of tents, seeing all of the food and drink vendors lining the stalls off to their right, while all of the games and activities were scattered long to their left.

Lighting up the far corner of the grounds was a large ferris wheel, its blinking lights shining in random patterns along it's spokes.

The Grand Stands in the Main tent took up about half of the square, looming up over the rest of the festival like some kind of red and white ghost.

"Hungry, Love?" Killian asked her, gesturing with his chin towards one of the food vendor's tents.

"Sure." She said, following his lead.

He bought them both corn dogs, despite Emma's protests, and settled them down at one of the standing tables while Emma hunted down a beer for both of them.

Emma noted the woman at the stand checked her wrist band when she ordered the beers, so that was what security was likely talking about when they mentioned the younger students not being allowed to have at the tents.

"I don't think that I have had the pleasure of having a corn dog before now, Swan." Killian said, setting down his food and gratefully taking the beer from her when she came back over to where he was waiting.

"There are probably a lot of 'American' delicacies that you haven't had the pleasure of having before now either. Have you heard of a thing called deep fried butter?" Emma said, laughing at the look of disgust that crossed his face.

"I will probably just stick with the corn dog for now then if that's the case."

"We are at a circus Killian, their specialty is deep fried anything. Deep fried ice cream, butter, bacon, twinkies-"

"What in the devil is a twinkie?" Killian asked.

Emma laughed at the expression on his face. "Don't say it like it is some kind of dirty word." Emma had to pause to try and contain the laughter that was threatening to explode out of her. "It is a dessert pastry."

"You Americans and your deep fried monstrosities." Killian said, finishing off his corn dog and taking another swig of his beer.

Emma finished off her food as well and took to walking on Killian's left side, looping her arm through his so he could use his hand to hold his beer.

They walked beside a bunch of high schoolers trying their luck at the games before heading back towards the main tent to see a lot of the performers.

Killian and Emma's eyes widened when they walked into the tent. While it housed the main stage area where a group of trapeze artists were performing, there were also a bunch of other performers entertaining the students in random circles around the tent floor.

He pulled her to a stop in front of a performer who was currently breathing a small stream of fire over a younger students marshmallow.

"Can you do that Swan," Killian asked, pointing at the gentleman, "Breath fire like that?"

"Yeah, I can actually," Emma said, watching the performer with a pang of jealousy. While she didn't hope to be a circus performer, she was jealous of the fact that he was free to use his gift as he saw fit, without anyone trying to keep his powers under lock and key like hers were.

"Ohh, David look, A fire-breather, how cool is that?"

Killian and Emma both turned to see Mary Margaret pulling David along towards the performer, Ruby and Victor following close behind.

Emma's brows tightened at the insinuation and she felt Killian's wrist move to wrap around her shoulders, rubbing them in a comforting manner.

David recognized them first. "Killian, Emma! There you are!"

"Emma! So good to see you here." Mary Margaret pulled her into a hug as soon as she reached the couple. "Killian, you know David and Ruby. And this is Victor, Ruby's boyfriend."

Killian raised his beer in greeting.

Emma turned back to see the fire-breather looking at her.

"You a fire wielder?" He asked her. She shook her head mutely. "Light up the night little lady."

The performer winked at her before spinning into his next trick, making a shower of little flames bloom up from his hands and spraying out like fireworks.

The younger kids watching cheered, looking in awe at the act.

"You alright Love?" Killian asked her, wrapping his arm tighter around her shoulders.

"Yeah, I will be." She gave him a small smile the she hoped was reassuring. He smiled back at her and gave her a quick kiss to her forehead.

"I see you guys have already found the alcohol, did you already eat?" David asked them.

"Yeah, we got here about an hour ago, where did you come in?" Killian asked.

"We got in over by the ferris wheel, why?" David asked, having to speak up to be heard over the crowd cheering in the main stands.

"Because the food vendors are on the other side of the grounds mate." Killian said, "Emma and I can show you."

Killian turned to lead the way towards food, wrapping his arm around her. Ruby came up along side of her as David fell into conversation with Killian.

"Nothing going on between the two of you, huh?" She said.

"Ruby…" Emma started, really not wanting to get into it with her friend right now.

"Don't worry, I won't. But I just wanted to say that I haven't seen you this happy in all the time that I have known you, so am I glad for whatever this is. Okay?" She said, giving Emma an encouraging smile.

"Thanks Ruby. He does make me happy." She responded. Emma made an attempt at changing the topic, "Is Victor going to try winning any of those prizes for you?"

"While Victor might be an excellent scholar and all, I don't think he would be amused by the games they have set up here. They aren't meant for anyone to easily win, and he would spend more of his time complaining about the game than actually winning." Ruby explained, "What about Killian? He express any interest in winning you any prizes tonight?"

Emma looked back up towards Killian, watching him and David laughing over a joke as they continued to walk through the grounds. "He hadn't mentioned anything of the sort to me yet. But knowing him, I wouldn't put it past him."

They did eventually find a way to all of the games tents after finding food for the rest of their friends and getting fresh beers again for everyone.

David tried to cheat out one of the strong man games, winning on his first attempt at playing, but the game runner looked at him with a questioning eye after he did it for the second attempt.

It was when Killian snorted under his breath that the gentleman told him he had to switch which game he was playing to one of the ones meant for someone with his kind of strength.

Emma and Mary Margaret lost it then, laughing at their friend's misfortune and having to retry his wins on the second game. David didn't do as bad as Emma thought he would have considering the circumstances.

They continued making their way around through all the games tents, swapping stories and drinking amongst friends. Killian even won her a small purple bear at one of the games. It was the most fun that Emma had had in as long as she could remember.

After her fourth beer, she was feeling a pleasant buzz. She and Killian were hanging around the main tent still, watching as a group of acrobats swung from silk ribbons hung from the ceiling. Mary Margaret and David had already left for the evening, stating they had an early morning ahead of them. Ruby didn't let them off the hook that easily, yelling a few crude comments after them, much to everyone's enjoyment.

Ruby and Victor had also left for the evening, taking the chance for some time alone before Victor's roommate returned to their dorm for the night, while also avoiding whatever David and Mary Margaret were surely getting up to in her room.

Emma wasn't necessarily ready to head back to her room for the night, but she didn't want to hang around the circus anymore.

Something Elsa and her had done a few years back on one of their school breaks popped into her head, and she turned to look at Killian.

"Hey, did you want to go somewhere else?" Emma asked, placing her hand on his arm to get his attention.

Killian turned towards her and gave her a smile, "Sure, what did you have in mind love?"

"There is this game that a friend of mine used to play whenever we had the chance, where we sneak into the tunnels under the grounds and try and avoid the guards, wanna play?" She asked.

The smile on his face turned absolutely sinful. "That sounds like an interesting game. Lead on Swan."

A broad smile broke out across her face as they made their way out of the stands, both of them laughing and giggling as they both stumbled a bit getting down the stairs. Emma wasn't drunk, far from it, but she was buzzing on both the alcohol and Killian's presence.

Emma took his hand as she lead them across the campus towards one of the closest entrances to the tunnels that she could remember.

As she and Killian ducked behind a bush to avoid the detection by one of the security guards nearby, he shrugged out of his leather jacket.

"What are you doing?" She whispered at him.

"Covering your shirt up Love, the light color would give us away in an instant." He explained, throwing the jacket over her shoulders.

Emma made quick work of pushing her arms through the sleeves and moving to tuck most of her hair under her beanie. It was always Elsa's white blonde hair and love for blue shirts that usually got them caught by the guards.

As soon as the guard was past them, she tapped the leg nearest to her, signalling him to follow her towards the grate in the ground.

When she looked down, they could see light shining from the main tunnel towards the offshoot that lead towards this entrance. Perfect.

She wrapped her hands around one side of the grate and pulled, the heavy metal shifting enough that she could pull it further off to the side for her and Killian to climb through.

"You first, I have to move this back into place before we keep going, otherwise they are going to send a ton of people in after us.

"You sound like you have done this a lot." Killian whispered back to her has he began making his way down into the tunnels.

"Almost every week when Elsa was here." She replied as she began following him down, sliding the grate back into place.

"This Elsa lass sounded like quite the hoot." Killian said as she landed next to him.

Emma took his hand and began leading him down towards the main tunnel area.

"Okay, there are multiple little passages and nooks which aren't lit to hide in down these tunnels, so we just need to make sure that we avoid the guards for as long as possible." Emma explained, tugging on his hand to draw him out further.

They began aimlessly wandering around the tunnels, just exploring and having fun. They had seen a few guards make passes down different shoots of the tunnels without coming very close to them yet.

They were whispering quietly to each other when they heard the footsteps approaching.

"Shit, hide." Emma said, pulling Killian with her into the nearest side tunnel, tucking into an alcove before the guards came past.

He pressed his body against her, tucking her tightly into the alcove to make sure they both were out of sight. She felt his chest brushing against hers every time he breathed, the chain for his dog tags bumping into her collarbone.

He hadn't started out the year wearing them, considering he told her that he had been discharged from the Navy, but he mentioned to her he had taken to wearing them on occasion to remind himself where he had come from.

Emma wrapped her hand around the tags to silence the noise they were making as they moved against one another. Killian unconsciously took another step closer to her in response to the action, eliminating any non-existent space between them.

She was completely aware of all the places his body touched hers, connected from thighs to chest. His hand was pressed against the wall next to her head while his wrist was resting against her back underneath his jacket. The footsteps sounded closer, and he shifted slightly, pulling her closer to him while tucking one of his legs between hers to tuck himself in closer to the wall.

Emma hadn't thought through the size of the space when she pulled him into it, only thinking that they needed to get out of view of the guards. And Killian was a larger person than Elsa ever was, so a space that might have fit her and her friend wasn't exactly as conducive to Killian's larger frame.

"Did you see anything?" They heard one of the guards ask. Emma saw the beam of the flashlight shine down the tunnel over Killian's shoulder.

"No I didn't, you are just seeing things Jennings." Another guard responded.

"Must be, too many nights working. Riggans is increasing the patrols all of a sudden…" He said, voice trailing off as he continued down the tunnel away from them.

Emma looked at Killian, smiling up at him in relief.

"That was close." He whispered down to her, a broad smile spreading across his face as well.

Neither one of them made any move to exit their little alcove, or put any space between their bodies.

Killian's eyebrows furrowed as he continued to look down at her. "...Emma," He said in an almost warning tone as her hips shifted against his.

Emma pulled down on his tags, using her other hand to wrap around the back of his head and bring his lips down to hers.

Her eyes shut as he continued to press his lips against hers, and she felt as his hand moved from the wall to tangle in her hair, pushing her beanie off her head in the process.

Killian pulled back from her for a moment, and she opened her eye to look at him.

His pupils, already wide from the dark of the tunnel, had swallowed up the sky blue of his eyes. He licked his lips, seeming to make up his mind about something before leaning back into her, kissing her with more force, his tongue sweeping into her mouth, silencing her gasp of surprise.

His body pressed into hers fully again, her back hitting the wall behind her as he continued to ravish her mouth. Emma kissed him back with just as much fervor, enjoying the feel of his mouth, his body against hers.

She moved her hands, releasing his tags and running her hands down his back, her hands eventually landing on his hips. She pulled him forward, wanting to feel more of him.

"You are going to be the death of me, Swan." Killian groaned, pulling away from her mouth.

Emma made a small sound of protest before he moved his lips to kiss along her jaw and neck. His hand and wrist moved down her body as well, the wrist settling on her lower back and his hand splayed between her shoulder blades.

She placed her fingers through the belt loops on his jeans, pulling his hips sharply into her's, feeling his arousal pressing into her hip bone. He bit down on her collarbone in response, sucking a mark on the spot. Emma moaned, she felt like she was on fire. One of her hands pushed under his shirt, splaying out on his back.

Killian hissed and pulled back from her a bit breathless. His hand moved to pull hers out from under the back of his shirt.

"What's wrong? What did I do?" She asked, pulling her other hand away.

"You are burning up Love." Killian said.

Emma huffed in response. She didn't know why her powers reacted like that, increasing her temperature without her even thinking about it.

"Probably for the best anyway Emma, wouldn't want a guard to walk over to find me ravishing you in the tunnels." Killian said with a smirk.

"Let's head somewhere a bit more private than," Emma said, moving past him slightly to look out into the tunnel. No one was in their little side tunnel, so she pulled him behind her towards the grate where they entered, both of them giggling like teenagers and trying to shush one another at the same time.

They made it out of the tunnels without getting caught and chased each other across campus back towards the dorms. They made it back to Killian's building first.

"Did you want to come up Love?" He asked, still holding onto her hand.

Emma hesitated. She didn't know what she wanted all of a sudden. She had enjoyed herself in the tunnels with him, she really did, but she didn't know if she wanted it to go any further than that just yet.

Killian seemed to read it all on her face. "We don't have to do anything Emma. I even have a spare bed made up for a guest if she would like." He said jokingly, remembering Emma's first visit to his dorm.

Emma laughed. "Lead on then, Sailor." She said, gesturing towards his building. She moved easily over to his other side so he could keep his hand free while they navigated to doors in his building.

Emma smiled up at him as he unlocked the door to his suite, wrapping her arms tightly around him as they made their way in for the night.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary** : Ever since Emma was 13, she knew she had the ability to destroy people if she wanted to, and some days, she really wanted to. After being forced to go to Greenwood Academy following a traumatizing event in her childhood that brought to the surface her ability to manipulate fire, she never thought she would be free of the place. So for nearly 10 years, she lived a solitary existence with the exception of her best friends, but that was all about to change. Killian Jones had just been sentenced to attend the university campus at Greenwood Academy after an accident at sea caused him to be dishonorably discharged from Her Majesty's royal Navy and lose his hand. He doesn't know what to think about these newfound powers and what they spell for the rest of his now not-so-normal life. But a chance encounter one day has the ability to change all of that. A story about love and redemption between two people that shows, if you have the right person beside you, you can find a light in the darkness. **Rating** : M **Content Warnings** : Mentions of Violence/Death, Brief mention of Childhood Abuse/Sexual Assault, Mild Sexual Content

 **Chapter Specific Warnings: Mild Sexual Content**

 **Chapter Notes:** Okay, I said last chapter was one of my favorites, but this chapter is my favorite that I have written for this story. I want to thank daveyjacobsthepotterhead for all of her counciling and editing on this chapter, since it was going to end up much longer and we were able to turn it into something even better than I could have imagined. Thanks to princesse-swan as well for the amazing artwork that she made to accompany this story. It is even better than I could have hoped for. Enjoy, and don't hate me for the cliffhanger!

Chapter 8

Emma and Killian were lounging in one of the upper levels of the library, his head in her lap as she sat one of the couches. They both still liked retreating to the library to get some alone time away from their friends. Killian was reading her copy of 'Where the Sidewalk Ends' that he had borrowed a few days ago, while she was sketching in one of her books. She pursed her lips, working to try and get the lines right.

Things had changed between them in the last few weeks ever since the circus night. While they had never truly sat down and had the ever important 'Define The Relationship' talk that most people stressed over, they had eventually just moved into that significant other relationship stage.

They spent more time together than with their friends, didn't bother correcting anyone when they referred to them as boyfriend and girlfriend, and they just kind of slid into the title.

Not that Emma minded, she _liked_ having something to call him that implied that he was hers.

And she didn't mind being _his_ either.

They were still taking things relatively slow, it never having grown as intense as that night in the tunnels since, but she was surprised how comfortable she was with him.

She hadn't been comfortable around men, besides David, since the incident, and seeing how far she had come with Killian made her hopeful that the day would come when she wouldn't shy away from people unintentionally.

"You want to know something Swan?" Killian asked her, snapping his book shut as he peered up at her.

"What?" She replied, carding her fingers through his hair to push it off his forehead. It had grown longer seemingly overnight to her, he would likely need to get it cut soon.

"I haven't taken you out on that proper date yet." He said.

Emma thought back on that. What he said was true. Besides that one night at the circus, they hadn't gone out on anything that could formally be considered a date.

Sure, they hung out all the time and got meals at the dining hall on campus, but not many people would constitute that as a date.

Killian smiled up at her as he watched the thoughts flit across her face.

"Okay, I'm game. What did you have in mind?" She asked, looking forward to the evening. If it was anything like how the circus went, she was in for a good night.

"How about you let me plan the evening love. I'm sure I can scrounge something up to live up to those high expectations of yours." He suggested.

Emma laughed in response to that. "Do your worst Killian."

"You looked like you were deep in thought up there for a minute before I interrupted you, what were you thinking about Love?" He asked.

She cringed internally. There were still things about her past that she wasn't entirely comfortable telling him about. She picked what she thought would be safe.

"Us. How things have changed over the last few weeks. That night in the alcoves." She said, looking down at him.

Killian grinned up at her sinfully. "Really, hmm." He said before pushing up to kiss her.

Emma smiled into the kiss, she would never be able to get enough of his kisses.

When he broke away from her, he leaned over to snatch up her book, curious as to what she had been drawing.

Killian barked a laugh when he saw it, looking at her with something like love shining in his eyes.

On the page staring back at them was a sketch of two figures tucked into a corner, a larger figure pressing a smaller body back into the wall, locked in a passionate embrace.

o.O.o

"I can't believe you guys are going out tonight, right as we are all leaving campus for holiday breaks. Totally not cool Emma." Ruby admonished from her place on Emma's bed.

Emma had invited both of her girlfriends over to help her try and figure out what she was going to wear for the night. Killian hadn't given much away as to what his plans were for the evening, just to dress for a nice dinner on campus.

There weren't that many nice dining places on campus, so Emma was fairly certain he was going to bring her to either the Italian restaurant or the Mexican place right between the upper and lower campuses. Even though they couldn't technically leave the campus to go out somewhere actually upscale and nice, it was still something different than eating lunch together at the dining hall on campus.

"Oh, leave her alone about it Ruby. It's likely so she doesn't have to deal with anyone hounding her about her evening for a while," Mary Margaret said, throwing a stern look over at Ruby when she said 'hounding'.

"Hey now, while I appreciate the canine related word play, I never said that I would get all over Emma's case about every detail of what happened on her evening out. Nope, wasn't insinuating that at all." Ruby said sarcastically, rolling her eyes dramatically at Emma through the mirror.

While She and Ruby had never been the closest of friends, Emma had always been a bit closer to Mary Margaret, something in their friendship had changed after the circus.

The morning after that night, instead of bugging Emma how her night had been; because Ruby knew that she had stayed with Killian for the night, Ruby just smiled at her and continued on with the conversations that she was having with Mary Margaret. Emma was surprised, but at the same time thankful. That night meant something to her, more than she initially realized, and she was glad that her friends weren't traumatizing her about it.

"Okay, what do you guys think of this one?" She asked, turning around to hold up a red dress against her body.

Ruby let out a low whistle. "Damn, you would look so hot in that one Ems."

Emma flushed in response.

"I'm just saying, maybe you should wear something a little more toned down. I don't think you are trying to get laid tonight, right?" Ruby asked.

Ruby was right, but there were painfully few nice dresses in her wardrobe that she could wear out on a colder night. Emma groaned and hung it up on the rack.

"Why is this so difficult?!" She yelled, turning away from her closet and slumping back on the bed between the two of them.

"Maybe it is because this is something more than just a casual hang out with Killian," Mary Margaret said quietly next to her, "This is your first real date with him, right?"

"By his crazy standards, yes," Emma said. She still considered that night at the circus to be their first date. It was her first date at least.

"See, maybe because you are putting all of this pressure on the evening, it is stressing you out more than it would normally would." Ruby said. "Try and relax. What would you like to wear for the evening?"

"If I knew I could get away with it, I would probably go out in leggings and a t-shirt." Emma grumbled. She knew Killian well enough to know that he had something over the top planned.

"Okay, but what do you think you can be comfortable in for the night? Forget about the weather and everything, what would you be truly comfortable in?" Ruby said, trying to put her at ease.

With those words in her head, Emma glanced back at her closet. She was putting a good bit of stress on the fact that she was worried about being cold for the evening. There was a dress in the back of her closet that she had been itching to wear for a while, but had never found the right occasion.

She walked over and dug through, finding the knee length pink dress tucked in with a bunch of other clothes she hadn't worn for a while.

"Oh, Emma! It's perfect," Mary Margaret gushed, placing her hands against her cheek.

"Yeah Emma, Killian won't know what hit him!" Ruby said, smiling at her.

Emma smiled back, turning to hold the dress up to her body in the mirror. Things were starting to look up.

o.O.o

After Mary Margaret and Ruby left to go and pack for school break, Emma sat down and got to work on her hair and makeup. She still had a bit of time before Killian was supposed to be picking her up, but she just wanted everything to be perfect.

She looked over next to her mirror and smiled softly at the purple teddy bear sitting there.

Initially after the circus, she had thought she lost the keepsake, forgetting it back in the grandstands when her and Killian had run off to go exploring. When she returned to her room the following morning, however, the bear was sitting there outside of her door, with a card attached.

Surprisingly, it was from the fire-wielder at the show, repeating his words to her from during his performance. She was so touched by the fact that the gentleman had noticed that she lost her token from Killian and went through all the effort to track her down and return it that she teared up a bit.

It was a great reminder of that night, and that there was a place out there for someone with her abilities, even if it wasn't what she had initially thought it would be.

Sticking the last of the pins up in her hair, she gave herself a final once over before moving to slip into her dress.

Once she had the back zipped up, she did a check once again in the full length mirror on the back of her door. Smoothing her hands down her skirt, she honestly felt a little silly for a moment.

She never dressed up for anything, let alone anything this nice, and the blush dress with the flowing skirt and heels were hardly something that she would consider her style.

A loud knock on the door broke her out of her thoughts and she smiled, he always did have the best timing.

Opening the door, she took a step back to admire what Killian was wearing for the night. Dark-washed blue jeans with a dark blue shirt under a silk waistcoat and leather jacket to finish up the ensemble. It looked like he had even trimmed his hair for the night.

"Like what you see darling?" Killian asked, raising a signature eyebrow at her.

Emma snorted a laugh, "Like you don't already know the answer to your question."

Killian took his hand out from behind his back and extended a single rose to her. "For you Love."

She took it from him, giving him a peck on the lips in thanks, and turned around to put it in a small vase she had in her room. After giving her room one quick look over to make sure everything was turned off, she grabbed her clutch and keys and took his offered hand.

Thankfully as they walked across campus in the direction of the Italian restaurant, it was still sunny out, holding off the chill of the night. She had left her coat back in her room on purpose, hoping to snag Killian's jacket again at some point during the night.

Emma let go of his hand only long enough for Killian to open the door for her, taking his hand once again as they entered the warmth of the restaurant.

"Jones, reservation for two," He said to the hostess. She nodded as she grabbed two of the menus, gesturing for them to follow her into the seating area. Most of the staff on campus at the restaurants and such were people who didn't live or go to school on the campus, so they were able to be open during the breaks when most people left.

Some of them possibly could have been former high risk students that lived in the community near the campus, as this was one of the few places in the country that they were allowed to work.

As the waitress stopped at their table, Killian moved in front of Emma and pulled her chair out, waiting for her to sit down before moving to take his own seat across from her. The hostess handed them both menus and listed the drink specials for the night before letting them know their waitress would be with them shortly.

Emma flipped open her menu and began looking through her options.

"Do you want anything to drink tonight Love? My treat." Killian said.

Emma looked up at him over her menu. "No thanks, maybe not tonight."

"What, worried you will find me even more irresistible after a few libations?" Killian asked, tucking his tongue in his cheek and grinning at her saucily.

Emma laughed. "No silly, that isn't what I meant at all."

"Just one drink Emma. I know you don't particularly care for alcohol, and I don't want you to be forced into drinking something, but a glass of wine is essential to any Italian meal." Killian said, leaning over and taking her hand in his.

Emma really couldn't say no him. "Fine, ONE glass."

Their waitress finally arrived, taking down the order for a glass of wine for each of them and glasses of water. The waitress left to give them a few more minutes to look over the menu.

"What are you thinking about getting tonight Swan?" Killian asked, flipping through his own menu.

"I was thinking of having the chicken alfredo, but there really isn't anything on this menu that you could go wrong with," She said.

"Eat here often?" He asked.

"Mary Margaret, Ruby and I alternated girls night once a month between here and the mexican restaurant down by lower campus. So over about 3 years, you get to know a menu pretty well. I think between the three of us we have tried everything on the menu." She said, chuckling a bit as she thought back on those nights. Her friends always knew how to have a good time out.

"Any recommendations?" Killian asked.

The dinner continued on in much the same manner, the two of them asking questions and bantering answers back and forth. Food and alcohol passed easily between the two of them, and Emma found that one glass of wine turned into three glasses, her and Killian laughing over funny stories about both mutual and different friends.

After they finished sharing a piece of chocolate cake and ice cream for dessert, Killian stood and extended his hand.

"Come on Love, I have somewhere I want to show you."

Emma gladly took his hand, letting him help her up from her seat. As they walked out into the night air, Emma shivered, now thoroughly wishing for her coat.

Killian noticed almost immediately, pulling his hand from her's and shrugging out of his coat and placing it on her shoulders.

"Thanks," She said, grateful for the warmth of the leather.

Killian threw his arm over her shoulders, his hand wrapping around her right shoulder and pulling her into his side.

Emma smiled wrapping her arm around him as well, keeping herself tucked firmly into his side.

"Where are we going?" She asked as he led them in the direction of the science building.

"Somewhere that I like to go when I just want to be alone. It seems that I have taken over your quiet space, so it only seems fair that I show you where I normally go if I want to brood in peace." Killian said as he pulled his ID out and bumped it against the readers on the door.

After the light blinked green, he pulled the door open for her, following her in and guiding her over to the elevators.

"Should I be concerned that this is the start of some horrible horror movie?" Emma joked as they rode the elevator up to the top floor.

"Ha Ha, very funny Swan." Killian drawled. "No, this was something Dr. Hopper showed me a few months ago, not long after I arrived on campus."

The elevator doors opened, revealing a small atrium before another set of double doors. "J.K. Roe Planetarium" was written in fading wording across the glass doors.

Emma opened her mouth and then shut it again, not having words. She followed Killian into the planetarium, continuing up the stairs to the upper levels of the domed building.

Killian flicked a light switch on the side of the room, illuminating a board of controls along the wall. He looked over the controls with a practiced eye, selecting a number of buttons and pressing in a code before looking back over at Emma expectantly.

She looked up in awe as the sliders covering the roof of the building slid open, revealing a cloudless night sky to them.

Killian tugged her hand again, leading her over to a pallet of blankets and pillows that was laid out over the floor under the roof.

Emma smiled as she laid down next to him, staring up at the stars above them.

"Killian, this is amazing." She said. Normally the barrier obscured the stars from them, making them not as clear or in focus as they seemed to be here.

"Dr. Hopper noticed during the first few weeks that I was in his class that I was struggling. I didn't know my place here, and I was still reeling from my discharge from the Navy and relocation here. So he invited me up here to see if this was somewhere I would like to spend some of my time. I just do some simple housekeeping around up here, but he allows me to come in any time I want to just lay out and study the stars."

Emma looked over at him, but he wasn't looking over at her, focused on the stars in front of him. How beautiful he was in that moment struck Emma like a ton of bricks.

That feeling that was sort of like love that had been blooming under her chest over the last few weeks grew warmer, pulling her under.

In that moment, Emma Swan knew she was in love with him.

Killian continued talking, not knowing the revelation that had just occurred next to him. "It reminds me of those nights out at sea with the Navy, when I was out patrolling on deck and could catch a moment to sit and admire the stars." He sighed in what sounded like longing. "The stars are different here, and the barrier doesn't allow us to see them that well, but it helps me remember where I came from. And that me being here doesn't change that."

Killian looked over at her, smiling softly when he saw her looking over at him.

"I don't think I have mentioned it yet tonight, but you look amazing Emma." He said, brushing the back of his gloved hand down her cheek.

Emma blushed not knowing how to respond to the complement. She turned and pointed up at the stars, "Do you know any of the constellations?"

"I would be a poor sailor if I didn't Love," Killian said, chucking a bit. He pointed up towards the sky, "That right there is the North Star. That is essentially your home point. I can always find my way anywhere if I can find the North Star."

Emma listened, fascinated, as he continued to explain the constellations in the night sky, going over some of the finer details and some of the mythology behind the constellations they could see.

"Which one is your favorite?" She asked, leaning against him more, her arms wrapped around the arm closest to her.

He pointed towards the bottom of the open area of the roof that they were looking through, "That one right there." He looked over at her, "That one is Cygnus, the Swan."

Emma felt like she could melt because of the look in his eyes, and she leaned over and pressed her mouth into his, overcome with emotion.

His hand came around to the back of her head, keeping their lips locked together as they moved closer to one another. Emma untangled their arms a bit and pushed up, moving her torso over his, pressing her body in closer.

Killian groaned into her mouth, his hand and wrist moving down her back under her borrowed jacket. Emma kissed him harder, her tongue slipping into his mouth when he broke away for a quick breath. His hand landed on her hips, and using his wrist he lifted her up so she was straddling his hips.

Emma broke away and both of them groaned at the contact. God. He was so warm underneath her, like he had his own flames burning under his skin. Killian pushed up, fusing his mouth to hers as his hand on her waist pulled her tighter to him.

Her hands moved to shove into his hair, pulling on the strands and Killian nipped her lip in return.

"Minx," He growled into her mouth. She smiled into the kiss and tugged on his hair again, loving his responsiveness to her.

Killian's hand dragged down her lower back and over her ass, settling on her thigh just under her dress. He squeezed her thigh, and Emma rocked her hips into his.

Emma groaned into his mouth. She could feel him, hard and burning through his jeans against her.

Killian pulled back from her mouth. They both were out of breath.

"Maybe we should take this back to my place love." He said, it coming out as more of a question than not to her ears.

He didn't know whether she wanted this, wanted him.

"My dorm is closer," She said against his lips. "Besides, my bed is bigger."

He grinned before pulling her those last inches to place another breath-stealing kiss on her lips.

It was a couple more minutes before they finally pulled themselves apart to make their way back to her dorm building. They both chased one another in their hurry, making a game out of the run back.

If the other caught up to them, they would get punished. It normally meant minutes of long kisses stolen against trees or other buildings on campus, delaying what could have been a quick trip back across campus.

They finally made it to her building, the night guard looking the other way as they came stumbling through the doors, laughing with messed up hair and clothes still slightly askew.

He pressed into her from behind as they came to a stop in front of her room, kissing against her neck. Emma struggled to focus as she dug around in her small clutch for her keys. Finally, she pulled her keys out and, after a momentary lapse in focus when his hand brushed around her front, skimming underneath her breast, she shoved them in the door.

The door opened and they both stumbled in, Killian immediately grabbed her and pushed her back against the door. Emma moaned as his lips latched onto her neck, sucking a mark at the juncture of her shoulder. She grabbed onto his shoulders, fingernails digging in as she searched for some kind of anchor in the swirl of emotions flowing through her body. She dimly remembered the last time things got this heated between them, and made a slight effort to remember to keep her core temperature down, so as not to burn him this time.

He pulled back from her only slightly as his hand grabbed the top collar of his (her) jacket and pulled, trying to get if off her. She moved to help, both of them stumbling again as she got her arms out of the sleeves and pressed herself back against him as the jacket fell to the ground.

Killian's hand found the tie holding her hair back, yanking it roughly out of her hair and shoving his hand into her locks as they tumbled down her back. His other arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her roughly against his body. It made it a bit more difficult for her to reach her hands between them and undo the buttons on his vest, but not impossible.

She pushed the offending fabric off his shoulders and began working on the buttons of his shirt.

"You are wearing too many clothes." She complained as they pulled back for a split second for a breath.

"You weren't complaining earlier if I recall." He said, nipping at her lips again.

She nipped at his back, loving the growl that he made.

The final button came loose on his shirt and she ran her hands over his chest as he pulled her back to his mouth with a hand at the back of her neck.

Killian guided them across the room until the back of her legs hit the edge of her bed, both of them tumbling back onto the bed.

He braced most of his weight on his blunted arm, his hand trailing along her neck and down between her breasts. He was saying something to her, but she barely heard him.

Unable to stop it, Emma tensed, flashing back to when she was 12.

Another body, a heavier weight settled against her and she started fighting back, not able to tell the difference between her memories and what was really happening.

Emma slammed her hands into his bare chest, causing him to curse and stumble back off her as she continued to lash out at him.

In her panic and scramble to get him off her, she tumbled off the other side of her bed, pushing away until her back hit the wall, she wrapped her arms around her legs and pulled them against her chest in an effort to cower away.

Slowly, some of her awareness was coming back.

People were talking around her.

"Emma, Emma! It's okay. I'm not touching you. Look at me Emma. I'm not touching you."

Killian.

That was when she noticed that the other voice she was hearing was her own. Over and over she was muttering, "don't touch me, don't touch me."

She blinked a few times, the darkness starting to recede a bit. Killian knelt a few feet away from her, looking at her with a concerned expression on his face. His hand and wrist were held up to show that he wasn't touching her at all.

Emma's eyes snagged, however, on the twin burns shaped like handprints on his chest.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary** : Ever since Emma was 13, she knew she had the ability to destroy people if she wanted to, and some days, she really wanted to. After being forced to go to Greenwood Academy following a traumatizing event in her childhood that brought to the surface her ability to manipulate fire, she never thought she would be free of the place. So for nearly 10 years, she lived a solitary existence with the exception of her best friends, but that was all about to change.

Killian Jones had just been sentenced to attend the university campus at Greenwood Academy after an accident at sea caused him to be dishonorably discharged from Her Majesty's royal Navy and lose his hand. He doesn't know what to think about these newfound powers and what they spell for the rest of his now not-so-normal life.

But a chance encounter one day has the ability to change all of that. A story about love and redemption between two people that shows, if you have the right person beside you, you can find a light in the darkness.

 **Rating** : M

 **Content Warnings** : Mentions of Violence/Death, Brief mention of Childhood Abuse/Sexual Assault, Mild Sexual Content

 **Chapter Notes:** Okay guys, this chapter is short, like really short. It was orginially supposed to be at the end of the last chapter, but the beta and I felt that it was best to break it up. Hopefully it will segway well into next weeks chapter, which I can't wait for you all to read. You may find out something interesting about Killian's past in next week's chapter. Hopefully that will keep you intrigued enough to stick around until next week. Thanks as always to my beta daveyjacobsthepotterhead and my artist princesse-swan. It has been a dream working with you both on this project.

* * *

 **Chapter 9**

Thankfully, she had stopped muttering to herself, he thought.

But Killian only grew more concerned as tears started flowing from her eyes and she started fidgeting with her hands in a way he had become familiar with.

Killian tried talking to her again, to get her attention back and get her to focus on him and not what was going on in her head. "Emma, hey, I'm okay. Look at me Emma, I'm perfectly okay."

He wasn't okay, far from it actually. But he wasn't going to let her know that. Everything had been going fine, better than fine actually. But after he lost his balance and landed on top of her in bed, everything changed.

He had never seen anyone flip that fast before. He was pretty sure that he had burn marks from her hands on his chest, they had been screaming hot when they collided with him earlier.

Killian lowered his hand and wrist and scooted forward an inch, again trying to break her out of her trance. He stopped short though when she started back against the wall again, cowering away from him.

"Easy Emma. I won't come any closer, I just need you to tell me what is going on."

He watched as she continued to rub her hands together in a nervous manner, shaking slightly. "I don't know." She said, barely loud enough for him to hear.

"What do you mean you don't know Emma?"

"I don't know, I don't know!" She cried, "He won't get out of my head."

Killian, against his better judgement, lept towards her when she started tearing at her hair.

He grabbed one of her wrists to pull her hand out of her hair and she flinched back from him again.

"Leave me alone, don't touch me! Get out, get out, GET OUT!" She yelled. He pulled his hand back immediately. He could feel the heat radiating off of her through his glove.

He didn't know for sure if she was talking to him or whoever she claimed was in her head. And he wasn't too keen on leaving her in this state by herself. He had seen things like this happen to fellow officers when he was in the Navy and usually having someone with them to keep them anchored helped.

"Do you want me to leave Emma?" He asked, uncertain.

"Yes, Get out!" she said, backing away from him further.

"Okay." He conceded, "I will be back to see how you are doing tomorrow."

Killian stood slowly and backed away from her. She didn't move from her spot against the wall, shaking and not looking at him.

He grabbed his vest off the floor along with his jacket, throwing both over his arm.

He looked back at her one more time in concern before he opened the door and walked out of the room.

The sound of the door locking behind him made something in his stomach twist.

He didn't go far, he just walked across the hall and leaned against the wall. He slid down until he was sitting against the wall, head in his hand.

Killian sighed, still reeling from what had just happened. He didn't know what was in Emma's past that would have made her react like this, but he decided, right then and there, to find out the next time he spoke with her.

Mustering up his strength, he stood up, wincing a bit as his shirt rubbed against the handprints on his chest. And after putting himself back together, he headed back across campus towards the planetarium, and spent the night sleeping under the stars, dreaming of what could have been.

.o.O.o.

Emma didn't get out of bed the next morning.

Honestly, she didn't get out of bed until that night; only when she was too hungry and thought that she was going to starve did she get up.

Only to grab the tub of ice cream sitting in her freezer and climb right back under the covers.

It had taken her awhile to be able to get herself calmed down enough to finally fall asleep after everything that had happened with Killian the night before. Everything after they had gotten back to her dorm was a bit hazy, but she remembered the panic that had flared to life and the flames that had desperately tried to rise and protect her. And she remembered her horror at seeing the twin burn marks she had left on his chest in her panic.

She would never forgive herself for hurting him like that.

Which was why she had ignored him when he came pounding at her door during the day today.

It wasn't until she yelled at him to leave her alone again through the door that he finally left.

Afterward she had curled up further under the blankets, clutching her little purple teddy bear, and sobbed herself to sleep again.

She felt like she had broken something in their relationship. And she wasn't sure that it could be repaired.

Emma curled in on herself under the covers in bed and sighed. She really needed to talk to Killian.

To at least try and explain to some degree what had happened between them, to try and explain her reaction. She didn't know if she would be able to explain it to him, didn't know if she would be able to get the words out, but she had to do something more than just wallowing in bed all break.

It took a few more minutes of an internal pep talk before she was able to get out of bed and take a shower.

After a probably too long shower, she changed into a comfy sweatshirt and yoga pants, and set off to find Killian.

She found him sitting in their normal spot in the library, reading a book. He looked up at the sound of her approach though, and snapped the book shut, setting it down to get up and hurry over to her, wrapping her in a tight hug.

"Thank god you're okay." He said. He let her go almost immediately, feeling her involuntary tense when he held her.

She felt even worse about it when she saw the look on his face. He was so worried and concerned about her that she felt absolutely terrible about how she had been avoiding him for the last few days.

"As okay as I can be, I guess." She said, shrugging her shoulders a bit. She was starting to feel a bit uncomfortable under his scrutiny. She saw a muscle along his jaw twitch.

"Maybe we should talk." Killian said slowly. Emma followed him over to the couch, sitting on the opposite end and pulling her legs up to her chest, not knowing where to begin.

"I'm sorry. I don't really know what to say to make this okay," she said, looking down at the floor next to the couch and running a hand through her still damp hair.

"I don't know if it will make things okay, but you could start with an explanation." Killian said.

Emma looked over at him, a little surprised by the anger she heard in his voice. "What?"

"What the hell was that, Emma?" He asked, frustration and anger burned in his eyes when he looked at her. "Everything was fine and then you were screaming, shoving me off of you in what I can only describe as pure terror. So I think after everything we have been through you owe me an explanation for what that was."

Emma wrung her hands together, pulling her lower lip between her teeth. She didn't even know what that was herself. So she didn't even know where to begin explaining it to him. "I can't," She admitted quietly.

"Don't give me that Emma. The least you could do is try," He fumed angrily in front of her. He stood up and shoved his hand roughly though his hair.

"I can't," She said, looking up at him sadly. "I'm sorry."

"Dear God, yes you can. You owe me that much Emma," Killian said, his voice rising in anger.

Emma didn't know how to respond to the anger in his voice, in his eyes. But suddenly she couldn't stand the way he was looking at her anymore. "I don't owe you anything." She said, her voice quiet. Hard. "I can't explain what happened."

"The fuck you can't." Killian snarled at her.

Unbidden, tears filled her eyes as she stood, anger flooding through her. "I fucking can't, Killian. Because I can't even acknowledge to myself what happened to me in the past. And don't you fucking touch me right now." She said, halting him. Seeing her reaction, his face had softened and he had taken a step towards her, hand outstretched. "I can't control myself right now, and I don't want to hurt you." She could feel the heat flooding through her system, the flames swirling under her skin. This was the closest she had ever felt to her flames with her bracelets on, and it was scaring her.

Killian stood a few feet from her, a muscle twitching in his jaw. He didn't look any more pacified by what she had said.

"I also don't owe you shit. I know nothing about you!" She exclaimed. He opened his mouth to argue with her, but she beat him to it. "I don't know anything about your childhood, about your family besides that you have a brother. I don't even fucking know what your powers are! You won't tell me. And I have respected that. I don't need to know. But you can't demand to know anything about me, that I owe you any kind of explanation when I don't even know the bare essentials about you."

"I wasn't the one having a panic attack! I wasn't the one who was incoherent and inconsolable! Jesus Emma! It was like you disappeared all of a sudden and someone else appeared in your body instead. I didn't know what was happening except that one minute we were making out and undressing one another and the next you were shoving your burning hands into my chest and shoving me off, screaming all the while. I don't know what to do to fix that."

"You don't need to fix me Killian! Is that what you have seen this as? Some kind of rehab project?" She yelled back at him. She knew she was reaching, but all she knew at that point was that she was angry, and that she was feeling something other than empty ever since she forced him out of her room.

"Don't be like that Emma…"

"What am I not supposed to be like Killian?"

"I don't know, but not like this!"

Emma had had enough. She couldn't think straight anymore. She shoved her hands into her hair pulling a bit at it, trying to ground herself.

"I can't do this right now." She said, moving to leave. Killian's hand snapped out and grabbed the sleeve of her sweatshirt as she pushed past him.

"Where are you going," He demanded, getting angrily in her face. Emma whirled, pulling her sleeve out from his grip and shoving a finger in his face, causing him to rear back from her.

"I said I didn't want you to touch me. And don't try and come find me until you can have a rational conversation with me. One that preferably includes some sharing on your part." She said.

He glared down at her but didn't say anything. Turning, she left the room. When she finally made it back to her dorm, she wondered if she had done the right thing.

She really hoped she hadn't ruined everything between them.

Because in that moment, it felt ruined.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary** : Ever since Emma was 13, she knew she had the ability to destroy people if she wanted to, and some days, she really wanted to. After being forced to go to Greenwood Academy following a traumatizing event in her childhood that brought to the surface her ability to manipulate fire, she never thought she would be free of the place. So for nearly 10 years, she lived a solitary existence with the exception of her best friends, but that was all about to change. Killian Jones had just been sentenced to attend the university campus at Greenwood Academy after an accident at sea caused him to be dishonorably discharged from Her Majesty's royal Navy and lose his hand. He doesn't know what to think about these newfound powers and what they spell for the rest of his now not-so-normal life. But a chance encounter one day has the ability to change all of that. A story about love and redemption between two people that shows, if you have the right person beside you, you can find a light in the darkness. **Rating** : M **Content Warnings** : Mentions of Violence/Death, Brief mention of Childhood Abuse/Sexual Assault, Mild Sexual Content

 **Chapter Specific Warnings: Mentions of Violence**

 **Chapter Notes:** Okay everyone, this is a chapter that I have been super excited for you all to read! I saw this chapter in my head pretty early on into the story, so it was written before a lot to the middle happened. It took a lot of time, and some editing in the chapter to get it to flow well with what was currently being written, but I knew this was something that was integral to Emma and Killian's story. I noticed pretty early on that while this was a story about people with supernatural abilities/powers, there wasn't a lot to writing where we saw them use their powers. We got a glimpse of what Emma could do earlier in the story, but now we get to see a bit more about what other powers exist at Greenwood Academy. Thanks again to daveyjacobsthepotterhead for helping me integrate this chapter better into the story and princesse-swan for making some amazing art for the story as well. (part of her Killian photoset might finally begin to make more sense…) Enjoy!

Chapter 10

"I don't know Emma, maybe he was genuinely interested in getting to know you better." David said, trying to placate her.

Emma huffed in response. She had gone to David after they had gotten back to campus, trying to get someone to help her figure out what was going on inside of her head after she had had that argument with Killian a week ago. She had been studiously trying to avoid him, since she wasn't entirely sure why she was upset with him either.

There was just something about the way he was pushing her that got entirely too far under her skin, and it unsettled her a lot.

She didn't let many people in, so the fact that someone wanted to get to know her for a change was something she didn't necessarily know how to handle.

Emma looked over at David as they continued to walk towards the middle of campus, since they were meeting Ruby and Mary Margaret after their lecture let out in 5 minutes.

"Yeah, I really don't know either. There is just something about him that just gets under my skin." She said, wrapping her arms around herself.

"And who said that was necessarily a bad thing? You have already told me that he understands you better than the rest of us can, considering the fact that he is a High Risk student like you are. You might not know what his powers are-"

"But that's the thing! I don't know anything about him, how can he demand to know everything about me?" Emma countered.

"Emma," David said, stopping her in her tracks and placing a hand on each of her shoulders, looking directly at her like a parent would if they were trying to have a serious conversation with a young child. "Yeah, maybe you don't know much about him now, but you won't know anything about him if you never open yourself up to listening to him. Maybe he wants to tell you but doesn't think you will understand what happened to him. Did you ever think of that?"

She hadn't. But that shouldn't necessarily have any bearing on her decisions either.

"Hey, what are you guys talking about?" Ruby asked, walking up next to her.

"What do you think?" Emma muttered, turning away from David and looking a different way across campus.

"Well, based off that tone, I can guess." Ruby commented dryly. Emma forgot how much her friend heard sometimes.

"And speak of the devil…" Mary Margaret entoned.

"Hey David, how have you been? Long time no see!" Said Robin, walking up to the group. Emma turned to see Killian following not that far behind him.

"Hey Robin, Long time is right, not since last fall term, right?" David asked, pulling him into a one arm hug and slapping him across the back.

Killian stopped just off to her left, watching David and Robin catch up. She tried to ignore the heat emanating from him, how comfortable she wanted to feel around him. She did feel comfortable around him, and that was what was scaring her, how he just got her to open up without even having to try.

"Emma, can I just say something." He asked under his breath. He leaned in closer to her when he asked, probably so her friends couldn't eavesdrop on them.

"I don't know, are you going to be rude again?" Emma said, rubbing her hands up and down her arms. A ball of anxiety was starting to form in the pit of her stomach. Something more than just his presence next to her was starting to make her uncomfortable.

"Emma…" Killian started, sounding tired, before being interrupted by Ruby growling under her breath.

All conversation in thier group stopped as they all turned to look at their friend. "What is it?" Mary Margaret asked.

Ruby turned her head up towards the sky, turning in a slow circle, scanning the skies for something, but Emma didn't know what.

"Something's coming." She said. David moved in closer to Mary Margaret as Ruby's normally soft brown eyes began to glow an eerie shade of hazel and her canines began to elongate.

Emma turned to look around the campus, all of the students who were out milling the commons had all come to a stop, looking up at the sky and around them as those with powers to sense an incoming threat began to speak up.

The entire campus had gone silent. Watching and waiting.

With her own senses seemingly heightened, she was hyper aware of Killian's presence as he moved in closer to her as well, his right arm brushing hers.

She stilled. Off to her right, coming in fast from behind them, was a flash of heat, one that was both familiar and foreign at the same time.

She whipped around at the same time Ruby did, focusing on the incoming projectile breaking through the upper cloud layers.

Students all around them began to scream, running for the surrounding buildings.

Emma and her friends stood still, watching as the missile broke through the final lower cloud deck and aimed straight for campus. Killian wrapped his hand around her arm, but she shook him off; focusing on how fast the missile was coming in.

She began counting back in her head, Five.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

Killian slammed into her as the missile hit the protective barrier surrounding the campus, knocking her to the ground as the world rocked around them.

All around campus the warning sirens started going off, amplifying the screams of the terrified students.

Emma opened her eyes, not even remembering that she closed them, and pushed up off the ground as far as Killian seemed to be letting her, and looked around campus. The students were in a mass panic, running to and from buildings on campus, trying to make it to a designated shelter building. Many stumbled as another strike hit the barrier above them.

"They're trying to take down the barrier." She said, not quite believing what she was saying. Never had anything like this happened to one of the campuses.

"Emma, we have to get out of here." Killian said. She turned to find him looking around the campus at all of the students running around them. He looked back down at her, "Did you hear me? We have to get out of here!"

Emma pushed him off her, but didn't make any move to leave the general area. Her gaze snagged on what had seemingly already caught David's attention.

The line students and soldiers that were now advancing on them.

"What in the-"

"Robin, get the women out of here." David said, moving to spearhead their little group.

"What!? David, you can't possibly think-"

"Don't argue with me Mary Margaret, you know your powers will do you no good here." David yelled, angrily cutting her off. Mary Margaret looked like she was about to argue, but stumbled as another missile rocked the campus. The barrier gave an ominous groan in response.

Robin moved to grab Emma's arm away, but she pulled away from him. "I'm staying" she said.

"Emma-"

"No!" She yelled, cutting off both David and Killian. "I can help, don't make me go with them." Mary Margaret and Ruby were already taking off away from the advancing line.

"Emma, you can't do anything with those bracelets on, and you know that!" David said, trying to reason with her.

"But I can feel them! The flames from the missile blast, I can feel them! If you can get me out of these bracelets, I can fight!"

Whatever response both men had, since Robin had taken off after the women, was halted as the ground rumbled beneath them.

All three looked up to see Gaston, a student with the gift of earth manipulation, charging out ahead of the line. Fissures in the ground opened up where he his feet landed, unsettling the ground further. Without warning, two boulders came flying at the trio, one right after the other.

David lunged out in front of her and Killian and grabbed the first one right out of the air above his head. He grunted as he stopped it's momentum and swung it back at the other boulder flying towards them, both shattering mid air.

She lunged for her friend, extending her wrists. "DO IT!" She yelled over the roar of another missle hitting the barrier. One more hit and it was likely that the barrier would fail.

David's eyes were conflicted as he looked at her for a fraction of a second, but then reached and pulled at the bracelet on her left wrist. After a heartstopping second, Emma felt the metal begin to give, and her flames began roaring up inside her.

"The other one, Quickly," She said, thrusting her right hand at him again.

He took this bracelet between his hands and pulled at it, sweat beading at his brow with the effort to loosen the mechanics in the bracelets.

Finally, the second bracelet's mechanics failed as well, and she was free.

Shucking the remains of the bracelets off her wrists, she turned towards Gaston, who was still advancing on them, working to build up his next attack.

Noticing her at the front of their group now, Gaston signaled to the troops advancing behind him as he continued to stride towards her, a ghastly smirk appearing on his face.

Emma scanned the lines behind him, noticing other students intermixed with the unfamiliar faces. Why were they doing this?

More importantly, where was the academy's security? The sirens had been going off for at least 5 minutes, some kind of response had to be on it's way by now.

Gaston stopped a football field away from her, his hands twitching and flexing at his side. Right as he pulled back to send his next strike at them, the last blast the barrier could take hit.

Both of them staggered as they tried to keep their balance, the roar of the missile's implosion even louder without the barrier to muffle it.

Emma looked up to see the swirling flames now bursting through the gaping hole in the invisible structure protecting them and smiled.

.o.O.o.

Killian and David were both blown back as Emma took control of the flames that came from the missile impact, a tornado of fire dropping out of the sky and slamming into the ground around her.

Killian looked up from where he had hit the ground in awe and terror as the flames continued to swirl and expand in the sky. They filled the area of the barrier that had failed and continued to swirl outward, apocalyptic storm clouds swarming over campus.

The flames that had shot out of the sky turned into a ring spinning around her, flaring out in response to Emma's movements, as if they were no longer two separate entities, but one in the same.

The mass of people that had been moving towards them stopped when the earth thrower had stepped forward, and Killian noted with satisfaction that they looked like they wanted to turn and back away, not realizing the force they had unleashed. As he scanned them further, he was relieved to see that they didn't have any visible weapons on them.

Killian had known she was powerful, she had mentioned it off handedly to him a few times, but judging by the equally awed and terrified expression on David's face, even he didn't know what Emma was capable of.

It also seemed that this other bloke didn't know what to do about her now either. They obviously hadn't been expecting anyone to stand up and fight back against them. But it seemed that indicision had passed, because a cruel smile spread across his face as he turned and launched a multitude of boulders Emma's way.

Heart leaping to out of his chest, Killian regained control of his stunned limbs and moved to get up and... do what he didn't know. All he knew was that he had to try and protect this precious thing of his.

A hand on his arm stopped him in his tracks. Killian turned to see David eyeing him warily.

David had to yell to be heard over the roar of the flames, "What are you doing, trying to get yourself killed?"

He looked away from David's skeptical gaze. He didn't know what he was going to do, but he had to do something.

He was the only one in their group who had seen actual combat before for fuck's sake.

Killian watched with bated breath as Emma launched herself out of the way of a boulder, flames exploding from her feet to propel her through the air and a safe distance from the first impact. While working to avoid getting crushed, she also was trying to press her advantage, desperately flinging balls of flame out in the other fighters direction as well as the mass of troops behind them.

All of a sudden, someone from the troops behind them yelled, pointing up at the sky, his words drowned out by the crashing of boulders into the ground.

David and Killian looked up to the sky simultaneously, seeing the next missile incoming, straight for where the last one had breached the barrier.

"Fuck," David intoned next to him. Yep, that about covered it.

But, as the missile struck the swirling flames protecting the school, it imploded, adding to the heat and intensity of the flames above them.

Emma, using the distraction of the missile's explosion to her advantage, struck. Meteors of flame launched down from the emboldened blaze in the sky, striking down into the sea of people and causing them to scatter.

Where the flames hit, the person fell to the ground and didn't get up.

Killian blanched, after everything that happened to him, he couldn't stand the idea of killing someone like that.

David, seeming to notice his reaction, stated, "They aren't dead, they are restrained, look."

Following David's finger, he noted that what his friend said was true. Rings of flame encircled their necks, waist, wrists and feet, preventing them from rising without actually burning or injuring them.

That's when Killian had an idea. A stupid idea, but an idea nonetheless.

"Break it off," He exclaimed, startling David away from whatever he was watching.

"What?" David asked, looking confused.

"My Glove, it is a suppression object of sorts. Break it off." He extending his right hand out to his friend, hoping he wasn't making a huge mistake.

"You don't even know how to use your powers, what good will doing this be?" David asked, but still reaching to inspect his hand. They were running out of options.

While another missile had struck and was again destroyed by Emma's flames, she was slowly losing the upper hand when it came to her battle with the other gifted person.

"Well I have to do something, I can't leave her to fight this all on her own," He said. He flinched as a boulder came at her unawares, slamming into her extended arm and knocking her down from where she was propelling herself through the sky.

David began scouring the ground, looking for what, he didn't know.

"Are you sure you aren't going to do more harm than good?" He asked, picking up a piece of concrete about the size of a brick. David gestured towards the ground.

Killian knelt down and extended his hand, placing it palm up in front of him.

"This might hurt," David said, lining up with his hand. "You still haven't answered my question."

"I guess that is a risk we have to be willing to take," He said looking up at his friend.

Indecision warred in David's eyes. But whatever he seemed to see on Killian's face, the indecision gave way to determination.

With a grunt of force, David slammed the concrete into his gloved hand, cracking the metal plating. Killian barely noted the discomfort in his hand from the blow as he _felt_ it as that nameless thing in him came swimming back to life.

David watched him, seeming to wait for something to come exploding out of him.

Thankfully, that didn't happen.

He watched Emma carefully, waiting for her to get as safely situated as possible, fighting to keep that darkness inside of him so he didn't end up hurting her on accident.

Taking a deep breath as she came to a stop, he released that barrier inside of him, and the world plunged into darkness.

.o.O.o.

Emma stumbled, panting, as the world went dark around her, the black so deadening that even her flames winked out.

She didn't dare try to reignite them for fear of placing a target onto her back.

She blinked a couple of times, trying to get her eyes to adjust.

The darkness surrounding her didn't seem like it would hurt her.

It was a quiet, peaceful sort of darkness. Warm like a summer night of pleasant dreams.

Emma heard the screams of others as the world darkened around them, and the noise of what seemed like bodies hitting the ground.

But she held her place, watching in surprised delight as what seemed like stars began winking into existence around her.

After what seemed like an eternity, the world became quiet around her.

She reached a hand out towards one of those stars in front of her and her eyes widened in shock as the star flared brighter in front of her once her finger came into contact with it.

She heard what sounded like ragged breathing next to her before the world came back, blindingly bright around her.

Blinking rapidly to get her eyes to adjust, Emma looked around in horror as she saw the bodies of everyone laying around her, the ones who had her flames restraining them remained untouched.

Killian stood just off to her right, breathing wetly.

"They are just asleep Swan, don't worry about it." He said, bending over to place his hand and wrist on his knees, sweating profusely as he struggled to get air into his lungs.

She noted then that his ever present glove was missing from his right hand.

"That was you?" She asked in revelation.

The slide action of a rifle stopped him from answering.

It seemed like campus security had finally arrived.

Emma immediately threw her hands into the air, turning to look wide eyed down the barrel of a gun.

"Don't. Move." The security officer said as more armed officers swarmed in around them.

"On your knees, now." Emma's eyes slid over to see Headmaster Riggans storming towards them as she slowly made her way to her knees. She couldn't see if Killian complied next to her.

Whatever he was going to yell at them was cut off as what sounded like another body collapsed to the ground. This time disturbingly close.

She turned to see Killian had passed out beside her.

Panic flooded through her in an instant. But before she could get beyond that initial moment of rising panic, her hands were shoved violently into a pair of suppression gloves, and the world went dark.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary** : Ever since Emma was 13, she knew she had the ability to destroy people if she wanted to, and some days, she really wanted to. After being forced to go to Greenwood Academy following a traumatizing event in her childhood that brought to the surface her ability to manipulate fire, she never thought she would be free of the place. So for nearly 10 years, she lived a solitary existence with the exception of her best friends, but that was all about to change. Killian Jones had just been sentenced to attend the university campus at Greenwood Academy after an accident at sea caused him to be dishonorably discharged from Her Majesty's royal Navy and lose his hand. He doesn't know what to think about these newfound powers and what they spell for the rest of his now not-so-normal life. But a chance encounter one day has the ability to change all of that. A story about love and redemption between two people that shows, if you have the right person beside you, you can find a light in the darkness. **Rating** : M **Content Warnings** : Mentions of Violence/Death, Brief mention of Childhood Abuse/Sexual Assault, Mild Sexual Content

 **Chapter Specific Warnings: For those of you who like Liam, I don't paint him in the best light (sorry)**

 **Chapter Notes:** And we are back! Now we get to hear Killian's point of view of the aftermath from the fight on campus, including visiting some of the ghosts of the past. Thanks to daveyjacobsthepotterhead for being an amazing beta and princesse-swan for the amazing chapter art. Enjoy!

Chapter 11

Ten days.

They had locked Killian in his room for **ten** days.

Great way to thank him for saving the campus and all that.

The first thing on his mind after they unlocked his room this morning was to find Emma and figure out what happened to her.

He had woken up in the secure infirmary near the training rooms, apparently hours after the security on campus had swarmed in around him and Emma, barrels of the long rifles aimed at both their heads.

Killian remembered Emma dropping down to her knees after the guards' command, but just like his powers, the world went dark and silent.

After making certain that he was physically okay, they swapped out one glove for another, removing the full suppression glove from his hand to a lesser model that he was able to remotely function in, and placed him in his room on lock down.

No matter how many times he pounded on the back of his door for someone, _anyone,_ to come in and give him some kind of explanation of what was going on, no one responded. He had finally given up after a day or two, his hand felt as though it was getting horribly bruised under the heavy metal of the glove, and his wrist wasn't in any better shape.

He had spent the duration of his sentence stuck with his thoughts.

At least he had mastered some form of his powers, and it was the only time that he had used his talent with an actual intent in mind, instead of it rushing out from him in some desperate need to protect.

There was still that crushing desire to protect self above all else that burned when the darkness had flown away from him that afternoon, but an even stronger desire that Emma not be hurt.

The thought of Emma spurred him on faster, heading towards David's room on the other side of campus.

At least they had fully replaced his glove when they arrive this morning. He didn't like not having full use of his one functioning hand.

He had tried dropping by Emma's dorm, since she lived in the high security building next to his, but she hadn't been around.

No sign of her there either, considering the lack of guards surrounding her room like they had been his.

He caught sight of a familiar red streaked head moving across campus.

"Ruby!" He yelled, waving his hand above his head when she perked up and turned to look in his direction.

Before Killian knew it, Ruby had him in a crushing embrace.

"Killian, Thank God." She said in relief. "Are you okay?"

She physically pulled back from him, making space between their bodies where there hadn't been before. Her nostrils flared as she sniffed at him.

"Are you scenting me?" He asked with a barely concealed laugh.

Her serious expression didn't waver. "I don't smell any blood. Where have you been for the last few days?"

"Locked down in my room, where do you think?" He said, lifting his newly fashioned suppression glove into the air. "I had to wait until they fashioned me with a new one of these."

"Makes sense. The entire campus is talking about what happened, the students are saying that you and Emma are heros." Ruby gushed, smiling at him like a proud mother hen.

"I take it the administration doesn't feel the same way." Killian said ruefully.

Ruby's expression soured. "That is putting it lightly."

"Speaking of Emma, have you heard anything from her?" He asked, feeling slightly panicked at the expression of concern crossing Ruby's face.

"No, I haven't seen her since Mary Margaret and I took off to go and take shelter. I thought you would have known where she was, David said you both were carried off in a separate direction than him after security rushed in to take over the scene." Ruby said.

"No, either she was taken somewhere else entirely or she was moved before I awoke, but I haven't seen her since then either." He commented, looking around, as if expecting her to appear out of thin air.

"I wonder where they put her." Ruby commented offhandedly.

That thought made Killian's heart clench even tighter in his chest.

When they last talked, really talked, they hadn't necessarily been on good terms. He was man enough to admit that part of that was his own fault though. After how she reacted to his advances that night, he really, **really** should have known not to push the issue of what happened to her when he confronted her that day.

That was also another mistake. Confronting her when she was already skittish enough around him again and trying to force her to talk about what made her that way when he wouldn't even admit to her how he lost his hand was a bit hypocritical.

Hindsight is truly twenty-twenty.

"David may have an idea of where she is, have you checked in with him yet?" Ruby asked, recapturing his attention.

He shook his head. "No, I was only let out just this morning, you are the first person from our little friend group that I have run into."

"Well, I don't think David has any classes today, so he should be up in his dorm. I know him and Robin were planning on hanging today as well."

"Thanks Ruby," He said, leaning in quickly to give her a peck on the cheek and darting off again in the direction of David's dorm.

"Good luck!" He heard her yell after him.

Killian was quickly stopped once he arrived at the building by two armed guards, demanding some form of Identification before allowing him into the building.

For security reasons they claimed.

More likely to force everyone into following more rigid standards than the academy previously had to keep students suppressed.

Once he was cleared by the guards, Killian made his way up to his friend's room on the 3rd floor.

He knocked twice, feeling a bit of relief hearing David's muffled "One second" coming through the door.

Killian stood shuffling his feet, looking around and seeing nothing while he waited for his friend to come to the door.

And for the second time that day, Killian was pulled into a crushing hug. Though he swore he could feel his ribs start to give a bit more as his friend lost control of his considerable strength for a second.

"Fuck. Jesus is it good to see you." David said, voice muffled from his shoulder.

"I would return the sentiment, but I think my ribs are about to crack." He said, wheezing a bit.

"Shit, sorry." David said, releasing him immediately.

"You're not normally this crass Dave, are you feeling alright." He asked, looking his friend over.

David looked fine physically, but Killian hadn't seen his friend after the battle, and didn't know if he had gotten hurt in the crossfire.

"I'm fine. I just haven't heard a peep from you or Emma since you both were dragged off. Just a relief to know that they hadn't shipped you off to some supermax facility somewhere." David said, gesturing for Killian to join him in his room. He waved to Robin as he walked in, noticing his other mate sitting on the futon in the room.

"Don't count your blessings yet mate, I ran into Ruby earlier and she hasn't heard from Emma either."

"Wait," David started, grabbing his shoulders roughly and turning him back around. "You haven't been with Emma this entire time?"

"No, I haven't seen her since I passed out. I am just as curious as to what happened to her as you are."

Worry flashed through David's eyes. But it was Robin who spoke next.

"Who knows what that bastard Riggans did to punish her. He has had it out for her ever since he arrived here two years ago."

Seeing the color drain from Killian's face had him quickly backtracking. "Not that he would take it too far. There are too many people he would have to go through to do something truly harmful to Emma."

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean he wouldn't try." Killian said, thinking back on the encounters he had had with Riggans in the past.

None of them had been particularly horrible, but he got the distinct impression that the headmaster had taken the job to feel superior to a group of people who made him feel inferior. And he ruled the academy with an iron fist out of fear of losing that power.

But Emma had mentioned to him, multiple times over the last few weeks, that something just wasn't right with Riggans, or that he hated her.

She hated him, that he knew for sure. Emma hated that Riggans made her behave no better than a prized mare at a stable whenever anyone came from outside to inspect or review the handling of high risk cases.

Robin clapping a hand onto his shoulder broke him out of his thoughts. "Why don't you take a seat and relax man, We all know David is one of the first people Emma will try and find once they let her out of wherever they are holding her and we will be there waiting."

David walked over and handed them both a beer, which Killian promptly took a large drink of. It wasn't as good as the stock of rum that he kept in his own room, but it would have to do in a pinch.

"So, what has been going on that I need to know about." He asked, trying to distract himself.

"Not a whole lot actually." Robin said.

"Well, that's if you don't include Ruby breaking up with Victor and taking him back the next day." David chimed in.

"Yeah, but that's an almost monthly occurrence now anyways, it was bound to happen sooner or later." Robin quipped back.

Killian was thankful that they continued carrying on the conversation without him, because he was more concerned about everything that had happened with Emma than the trivial nature of his friends' relationship status.

He thought back to that day a few weeks ago, when they had their fight.

Killian knew she had been ignoring him. It was painfully obvious since there weren't but 20 people on this campus during breaks and he hadn't seen her at all since that night she had shoved him off of her and cowered in that corner away from him.

He knew something, or someone had happened to her, she had hinted as much. But it killed him not to know why she was pushing him away all of a sudden. So he had tried to force it out of her.

Which was literally the dumbest thing he could have done.

He had known she had walls, given that it wasn't until after that first school break that they had spent with each other that she finally began to open herself up to him a bit in the first place. But what he hadn't known was how viscerally she would respond to having those walls pushed at.

Killian hadn't asked much of her, fuck, he hadn't told her anything about himself, but he thought she at least owed him an explanation for that night.

Who knows, maybe it would have been something they could have worked on together.

But because he opened up his big arsed mouth, she wouldn't talk to him any more.

And now with everything that had happened to them last week, he felt like he owed her an explanation.

She had looked startled, thankfully not frightened of him, when he revealed what his powers could do. And she had told him about her powers, how they worked for her, so he had thought they could at least talk about something that they seemed to have in common when they finally saw each other again.

Who knows when that would be thanks to that bastard Riggans.

His thoughts and David's and Robin's conversation were interrupted by a knock on the door.

Killian's heart leapt to his throat as he jumped up to answer the door.

Unfortunately, it wasn't Emma on the other side.

It surprised him more that it was his brother.

"Liam?" Killian asked.

His brother hadn't changed much since he last saw him before he was deployed to his own vessel, still straight backed in his full naval dress uniform. The stubble along his jawline was new and he had let his hair grow out a bit more than usual which was revealed when he removed his hat in way of greeting.

But what was he doing at the academy?

"Aye little brother. May I come in?" He asked, gesturing into the room.

"It's younger brother," he corrected automatically, "And I don't know, what are you doing here? The campus is closed."

"Well, I thought that would be obvious, I am here to see you, Killian." Liam replied.

Killian huffed out a breath, "Yes, I very well understand that, but how did you get here? You need to have a student ID to get anywhere."

"Besides, this isn't an approved open campus day, so no family members are allowed on campus." David chimed in, leaning against the doorframe.

"Thanks, for that bit of information. But when you know the right people," Liam gestured to his medals and rank indicators on his uniform, "You can get in pretty much anywhere."

"That doesn't explain why now, why today Liam. I have been here for well over 5 months, you could have decided to visit sooner."

"I was only notified of your marshalling and subsequent sentencing last month, and it took two weeks for my leave to be approved. I arrived a few days ago but they wouldn't let me onto campus, saying you were locked down or whatever nonsense."

David and Killian shared a look, it seemed a likely story from Killian's point of view, but if he knew his brother, he thought there was some other reason he had arrived on campus.

"Well, it wasn't some nonsense, they really did have me on lock down for the last few days." He responded, folding his arms across his chest, tucking his blunted wrist so Liam didn't see it.

"And what did you do this time that warranted the punishment Killian, it wouldn't be unlike you to do something just for the attention." Liam said, his voice taking on that condescending tone that he knew Killian hated.

No matter what he did when they were younger, Liam always had that self-righteous bastard attitude about him that always seemed to imply that he was better and Killian was the lesser of the two brothers Jones. He had tried to shed that while in the academy, make a name for himself away from his brother.

It wasn't his fault things happened to muck it all to hell.

"He bloody well saved the entire campus, that's what." Robin said, coming up from behind him to try and get in Liam's face.

Killian saw David move from behind him and Robin came to a halt behind his shoulder.

Liam let out a low laugh. "Of course."

"Of course what?" Killian said, raising his voice for the first time in a long time with his brother. "What are you trying to say Liam?"

"First the incident out at sea that got you marshalled and now this! Seriously Killian, I don't know why you are doing all of this! Are you doing it for attention? Is that it?" Liam yelled at him, getting into his face.

Killian flushed in anger and embarrassment, feeling the heat rush up his neck. He clenched his fist to try and get himself under control so his brother wouldn't see how much his words were affecting him.

"Right, because why else would I do anything." He said, exasperated, "That's how everything always was! If I didn't do something right, whether it be during my schooling or during basic training, it's because I wanted attention! Not because I was actually struggling or anything! You just thought it was a parlor trick to get you out of the spotlight and me into it!"

"You never gave me reason to think otherwise Killian." Liam yelled back.

Killian lost control of his temper, "WELL GUESS WHAT LIAM, I DON'T WANT THIS!" He yelled, reaching out to shove his brother out of his space. Both his gloved hand and wrist landed a solid blow against his brothers chest and he stumbled a few steps back.

Liam looked visibly startled when he noticed Killian's lack of a left hand. His brother grabbed onto his blunted wrist.

It wasn't anything like when Emma touched him there, like she understood. His brothers touch was harsh and gripping.

"What happened to you, brother?" He asked, his tone so much softer than it had been before.

"You have been keeping tabs on me well enough Liam to know where I was and what had happened, but you didn't care enough to notice this in the reports? I guess that shows where your real priorities are."

He shouldered past his brother, purposefully hitting his shoulder against Liam's to get some of his frustration out.

Turning the corner, he bolted down the stairs and out of the building. His emotions were swirling all over the place. He didn't know how to feel about the fact that he fought with his brother, because they hadn't had a good row like that in a long while. But the older he got, the less it seemed like his brother understood him. Even more now that he had discovered his powers.

His brother had strong opinions against people with gifts, so he wasn't sure how his brother felt about him being someone who was different from him now.

He stopped walking in the middle of the campus, taking a deep breath of fresh air into his lungs.

Killian didn't want to go to his dorm. In fact, he wanted to be as far away from there as possible.

He also knew David would be looking for him after sending his brother off, and Killian didn't want to deal with that confrontation either.

He started walking in the direction of the science building, hoping to find some solitude there.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary** : Ever since Emma was 13, she knew she had the ability to destroy people if she wanted to, and some days, she really wanted to. After being forced to go to Greenwood Academy following a traumatizing event in her childhood that brought to the surface her ability to manipulate fire, she never thought she would be free of the place. So for nearly 10 years, she lived a solitary existence with the exception of her best friends, but that was all about to change. Killian Jones had just been sentenced to attend the university campus at Greenwood Academy after an accident at sea caused him to be dishonorably discharged from Her Majesty's royal Navy and lose his hand. He doesn't know what to think about these newfound powers and what they spell for the rest of his now not-so-normal life. But a chance encounter one day has the ability to change all of that. A story about love and redemption between two people that shows, if you have the right person beside you, you can find a light in the darkness.

 **Rating** : M

 **Content Warnings** : Mentions of Violence/Death, Brief mention of Childhood Abuse/Sexual Assault, Mild Sexual Content

 **Chapter Notes:** For those of you who were wondering exactly what happened to Emma while she was on lock down, here is her side of the story. Thanks as always to my amazing beta daveyjacobsthepotterhead and artist princesse-swan. Enjoy!

* * *

 **Chapter 12**

Emma was freezing.

Yes, it was beginning to finally turn towards cooler temperatures in the region that the academy was located, but that didn't necessarily constitute the thick sweater and fleece leggings that she was currently rocking. Rubbing her hands together, her newly minted suppression bracelets clinking into each other with the motion, she tried to get some feeling back into her hands.

When the Headmaster suggested she get put on ice after the attack on the academy, she didn't think he would mean it so literally.

 _After they roused her in the medical wing of the academy, Killian nowhere to be found, the Headmaster, security team, and training team were arguing about what to do with her._

 _Graham, ever faithful, was arguing just to contain her to her room until another set of bracelets was fashioned for her. She hadn't injured anyone in the attack, and she had protected a lot of the students on campus while showing more restraint than many people here had thought she had, he argued._

 _The Headmaster wasn't swayed though. He thought she was a menace, a threat to the safety of everyone on the campus, and that she had to be dealt with immediately and swiftly._

 _He continued on, talking over the head of the security asking why they were trying to punish her and not Gaston. He suggested they put her on ICE for a few days. Graham visibly blanched when that suggestion came out of the Headmaster's mouth._

 _After sharing a look with the rest of the security team members, the head of security turned towards Headmaster Riggans, looking as though he was about to argue again._

 _All the arguments that he was going to plead on her behalf evaporated when Riggans threatened to fire him on the spot if he didn't escort Emma to the ICE block immediately. Riggans turned his back on everyone and walked out of the room._

 _Shoulders slumped in defeat, Emma let Graham and another security guard carry her towards the ICE block on campus. Despite living on the campus for ten years, she didn't know what the ICE block was or where it was located on campus._

 _But as they kept descending deeper and deeper into and beneath the maximum security facility on campus, Emma began to think that the reason she had never heard of the ICE block on campus was because the students that they sent there never came back._

 _Badging swiping through the fourth set of security doors, the head of security finally stopped in front of the third door down on the right. There were another six down the row from what she could see, and all the windows and walls surrounding the doors were covered with an ominously thick layer of ice and frost._

" _She is going to freeze down here if we don't take those gloves off her." Graham said, shifting her so she was standing on her feet without much support._

 _Still staring at the door in front of him, the head of security nodded his head, "I know."_

" _Well can't you do anything? Riggans took my master key so I can't get her out of these. I don't know about you August, but I don't want to risk putting her in one of those if Riggans didn't say exactly how long he wanted her down here." Graham pressed._

" _I am well aware of what you are implying here Hunter." The Head, August, said. Turning to face her, he pulled his set of keys from his pocket._

 _Fingering slowly through the dozens of keys, he looked directly at her as he slipped one into the slot on her right glove. She was struck by how young he looked._

" _You may not know this Ms. Swan, but Mr. Riggans doesn't know that I am gifted like many of the students here. He thinks that he hired someone just like him, normal, to fill his head of security. I know this about him because I can walk through people's minds._

 _I've known for a very long time what I could do, but I never attended a school like this, because unless I told someone, no one would ever know what I was capable of. I don't know what happened to make Riggans so afraid of you, but you are not someone that I think we need to worry about."_

 _He released the locking mechanism on the gloves, and she felt the warmth of her flames rising up inside of her once again. She looked down quickly at her free hands, flexing her fingers, and back up to him in disbelief._

 _He pushed a button to the left of the door, and the mechanism slid open with a cracking of ice, "Good luck Ms. Swan."_

 _The guards shoved her into what she now realized was a cell, and the freezing dark closed in on her._

If it weren't for the kind heartedness of August, letting her remain without any kind of suppression in the ICE block, she probably would have died.

Walking across campus towards David's dorm room, she was hoping he would have some information about what happened with Killian.

She hadn't heard or seen anything about him since she was taken down to the block. And after having nothing to do but worry about keeping herself warm and alive for ten days, she realized how she reacted had been wrong. Killian didn't deserve the way she reacted, but old habits for her seemed to be hard to shake.

And, she really did need to tell him how she ended up attending the academy in the first place, even if he hadn't told her how he traveled here.

He saved her life the other day, she at least owed him that much.

Besides, Killian was her friend. Something more if she was being honest with herself.

As she crossed campus, she noticed how things had changed since the attack.

The barrier still hadn't been repaired, so the clear panes that constructed the dome protecting the campus flickered oddly with electricity while they tried to figure out how to repair the monstrosity. Boulders and singe marks litter the campus buildings as well, remainders of her showdown with Gaston.

Crews were still working to try and remove the boulders and tree branches from the buildings, seeming to enlist the help of military branch members to do some of the heavy lifting that the clean up crews were unable to manage.

There were also more guards in place around the campus, a few had stopped random students as they made there way through campus to make sure they had the proper identification to be there. It seemed as though they didn't want another army smuggled onto the campus.

One such service member stopped her at the doors to Reynolds hall, asking for her ID badge and scanning the back before allowing her into the building. Some of the color had drained from his face when he beheld the name on her badge, he had obviously heard about the battle on the campus and her role in it.

Emma could hear a commotion as soon as she arrived at David's floor. Two or three voices yelling at each other, but one with a distinctly familiar accent jumped out to her right away, Killian.

Thank God he is okay, she thought to herself.

Rounding the corner, she hurried down to where she knew David's room to be, but stopped short as she noticed a tall man in military dress yelling down at Killian.

"First the incident out at sea that got you marshalled and now this! Seriously Killian, I don't know why you are doing all of this! Are you doing it for attention? Is that it?" The man yelled at him.

Killian visibly angered, a hot flush spreading up his neck and ears and his fist clenching.

"Right, because why else would I do anything. That's how everything always was! If I didn't do something right, whether it be during my schooling or during basic training, it's because I wanted attention! Not because I was actually struggling or anything! You just thought it was a parlor trick to get you out of the spotlight and me into it!"

"You never gave me reason to think otherwise Killian." The man yelled back.

"WELL GUESS WHAT LIAM, I DON'T WANT THIS!" Killian yelled, shoving at him-Liam-with his hand and blunted wrist.

Liam looked visibly startled when he noticed Killian's lack of a left hand. He grabbed Killian's wrist.

"What happened to you, brother?" He asked, his tone so much softer than it had been before.

"You have been keeping tabs on me well enough Liam to know where I was and what had happened, but you didn't care enough to notice this in the reports. I guess that shows where your real priorities are."

And with those parting words, Killian shoved past his brother, heading away from Emma towards the stairwell at the back of the building.

As Liam watched Killian go, David took notice of Emma standing there.

"Emma, thank God you are alright. What happened?" He came up to her right away and wrapped her up into a hug. "Jesus, you are freezing."

"Long story, what was going on over here?" She asked, pointedly looking over Liam when she said it.

"Nothing you need to be concerned about ma'm" Liam said, not turning away from where his younger brother had gone.

"Now see, that is where you are wrong. Killian is my friend, so yeah, that makes you berating him like he is nothing more than a child my problem." She said, stepping around David to get closer into Liam's space.

"Really, just being his friend makes it your business now? I'm his brother. You don't have any say in how I treat my family members. Killian will get over his temper in a couple of hours and will inevitably come back to apologize."

"But he shouldn't have to come crawling back to you to apologize when you came here and attacked him! How did you even get in here in the first place, this campus in on lock down after the attacks." She questioned.

Liam gestured to his uniform, "I am a member of her majesty's royal Navy, I know exactly what strings to pull and who to talk to to be able to see my little brother."

"Member of the Navy or not, you shouldn't be here." She said, "Killian doesn't seem to want you here anyway."

Liam flushed angrily, "Well, I haven't seen Killian since his ship deployed from London nearly a year and a half ago. I only just received word of his placement after he got Marshalled and dishonorably discharged from the Navy within the last few weeks."

"And I take it your reunion isn't going as planned?" Emma said, channeling her best impression of Killian's smirk that drove her up the wall.

David touched her arm next to her and murmured her name in warning.

"No, it hasn't, but only because whatever you seem to have done has caused my little brother to turn into a completely different person."

"We haven't done anything to him!" Emma said, beginning to feel defensive. Killian had done nothing but respect her and defend her to others around campus, so it only felt right to do so in return.

She just never expected to have to defend him to the brother he spoke so highly of.

"You may not have been the initial cause of the change, but you are only making him worse. Killian was never someone who ran into danger and fought in battles trying to be some kind of hero." Liam said back, his voice rising harshly, composure breaking.

"He was in the fucking Navy! Of course he was going to become a hero at some point." Emma retorted, her patience becoming thread bare.

"Yeah, well, I never thought my brother would be a killer either, but that happened too!" Liam yelled, getting into her personal space, his face inches from hers.

All the fight drained out of her in an instant. "What?" Her voice barely more than a whisper.

David moved his body slightly between them, trying to defuse the situation further.

Liam let out a sardonic laugh. "Oh, didn't expect that of your friend did you." Liam spat, his voice bitter.

Emma shook her head, not really able to process the thoughts flowing through her head.

"That's right, Killian is a killer. Killed one of his own men in cold blood when his ship came under attack. I don't know what happened, but he isn't my brother any more, and no matter what you all insist, you freaks did this to him." He pressed a finger into her shoulder.

She barely noticed.

"And I am going to get him out of here, one way or another."

"That is up to your government, Liam" David said, trying to play the diplomat. "You will have to take it up with them, the leaders here can't just release him. Especially after what happened last week."

Emma was barely listening to the conversation anymore.

Sure, Killian had mentioned that he was in the Navy before he had come to the academy, and that they had decided to send him to the states, but he had **never** talked about what had happened.

But she didn't know how to process the information that he had killed someone.

It wasn't like she had a poorer opinion of him now that she knew, but she was finally starting to see him in a different light.

Scenes flashed before her eyes, a looming figure above her in bed when she was 12. Her screaming for someone to come and help her. Roaring flames burning through her room and her house.

A charred body.

Sitting in that courtroom with members of her family staring down at her, some of them crying, some of them angry.

Her first nights here at the academy without anyone to comfort her after being removed from her family.

Family that she hadn't seen for ten years.

Emma couldn't say that she completely understood what had happened to Killian, but she was starting too.

"I have to go." She said in a daze.

Liam and David abandoned the debate they were having when she started to push around the both of them.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?" Liam asked, trying to push David out of the way to get to her.

David clamped a hand down on Liam's forearm, hard enough to make him wince. "Watch it buddy. Killian may be your brother, but Emma is my sister, you have no right to talk to her that way."

"The hell I don't. She is one of those freaks-"

Liam cut off as David squeezed his forearm harder, "I would watch how you finish that sentence, because Killian and I are also classified as one of those 'freaks' as you like to call us apparently."

"You're no danger to him, she could easily burn him to ashes with just a thought." He hissed.

That charred body flashed again in front of her eyes.

"Believe me Liam, I am more of a danger to you right now than she is to Killian." David said, looking pointedly down at Emma's wrists, where the metal of her new suppression bracelets winked brightly.

"Those keep her powers down to the point where she is no more powerful than you are. Me, they don't see the need to regulate me that way. So again, think hard about where you want this conversation to go."

Liam glared daggers down at David for a long second before ripping his arm free and walking off in the opposite direction from where Killian went.

"I have to go." Emma said again, after remaining silent for the exchange between Liam and David. She started walking for the doors that she had seen Killian go through when she felt a hand touch lightly on her shoulder.

So much lighter than the force David had just shown Liam. Always gentle with her.

"Emma" David said, moving so he was in front of her again. "Be careful. Things got pretty ugly between the two of them, so take it easy on Killian."

"Don't worry about me David." She said, reaching to hug him quickly. "I'll be okay."

She let him go and rushed out the doors, barrelling down the stairs.

Liam had been arguing with them for a good 10 minutes, so Killian already had a good head start to getting away from them.

Emma thought back on the conversations that they had shared over the last few weeks and thought about all of the places he liked to go when he was in a mood. He wouldn't go to the library, too many people even with the lockdown.

Nor would he go back to his dorm room. That would probably be the last place he went if Emma was honest. He hated being alone there.

Suddenly, the roof of the science building came to mind. Killian loved being up there in the quiet solitude of the planetarium.

With that in mind, she took off at a run for the science building, hoping she wasn't too late.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary** : Ever since Emma was 13, she knew she had the ability to destroy people if she wanted to, and some days, she really wanted to. After being forced to go to Greenwood Academy following a traumatizing event in her childhood that brought to the surface her ability to manipulate fire, she never thought she would be free of the place. So for nearly 10 years, she lived a solitary existence with the exception of her best friends, but that was all about to change.

Killian Jones had just been sentenced to attend the university campus at Greenwood Academy after an accident at sea caused him to be dishonorably discharged from Her Majesty's royal Navy and lose his hand. He doesn't know what to think about these newfound powers and what they spell for the rest of his now not-so-normal life. But a chance encounter one day has the ability to change all of that.

A story about love and redemption between two people that shows, if you have the right person beside you, you can find a light in the darkness.

 **Rating** : M

 **Content Warnings** : Mentions of Violence/Death, Brief mention of Childhood Abuse/Sexual Assault, Mild Sexual Content.

 **Chapter Notes:** Okay y'all, the reunion that you all have been waiting for is finally here! But things aren't always what they seem. Thanks to daveyjacobsthepotterhead for helping beta this monstrosity and helping me write (good) angst for the first time these last couple of chapters. Also huge kudos to princesse-swan for being an amazing artist. More art from her to come in the following chapters!

* * *

Chapter 13

Emma burst through the doors of the planetarium, cursing soundly when she didn't initially see Killian in the room.

This was the most likely place where he would have come to, she was sure of it. Killian had always said it was relaxing and peaceful to be back under the stars, but considering that it didn't seem like he was here, she was at a bit of a loss as to where he could have gone.

Emma whirled around as the doors opened behind her.

"Emma. Is that you?" Killian asked, walking into the room.

Emma sighed in relief. "Killian, thank god you are okay." She said, rushing up to him and pulling him into her arms.

Killian's arms came around her in a crushing hug. "I was so worried about you Swan," He said, his hand coming up to touch the top of her head. "No one had any idea what happened to you."

"Riggans happened to me." She whispered, shivering a bit remembering the cold of the ICE block. Killian gripped her tighter in response.

"That's what we were all worried about," He murmured, burying his face into her neck.

"We?" She asked. Her brief conversation with David didn't give her any idea as to how long Killian had been locked up for either. "How long did they lock you up for?"

"I only got released this morning." He said, pulling back from her a bit. He held his hand out between them, what she now realized was a suppression glove was different than when she had last seen him. "Apparently that's how long it takes to outfit me with a new one of these."

"Where did they put you?" She was concerned that they had locked him in some super max wing like they had done with her.

"I was locked in my dorm, where were you Emma?" He asked, searching her eyes like they held the answer.

"They put me on ICE," She said.

"Does that mean what I think it means?" He asked. The look in her eyes must have been enough, because he cursed soundly, pulling her back into his arms. "That explains why you are still shivering love. I didn't think you could get cold," Killian chuckled a little bit, trying to lighten the mood.

Emma wasn't in any kind of laughing mood. Far from it actually.

"You saved me." She said, pulling back from him again.

He looked down at her in confusion. "What?"

"That fight with Gaston, you saved me. I wasn't doing well. If it hadn't been for you. I don't know what would have happened."

"It was really nothing Swan." He said, shrugging his shoulders a bit uncomfortably.

"No, it wasn't nothing. You didn't have to do that."

"Yes I did." He said.

"Why?" It was all the questions that she had been scared to ask wrapped up in one. Why save me? Why use your powers like that? Why didn't you just leave after I had been so horrible to you?

"Because I couldn't just sit by and let that bastard hurt you. And I couldn't just sit back and not do anything. I had to help you, however I could. I don't really know how my powers work, but I knew the one thing that I could do to help so I had to try." He explained.

"I don't know what to say." She said, getting lost in the way he was looking at her.

"You don't need to say anything Love. Besides. I should be apologizing to you anyways." Killian pressed a finger to her lips to silence whatever she was about to say. "Yes, I do. So just let me get this out. Okay?"

He waited until she nodded her head silently before removing his finger and taking a step back.

"Look. I didn't mean what I said to you before Emma, back over break. I was scared, and frustrated. And I took that out on you when you were scared and frustrated too." He sighed, moving his hand from her elbow where it had been resting to run it through his hair. She belatedly noticed he had gotten it trimmed since the last time they spent any real time together. Too much had happened too fast that day back in the commons for her to have really taken any notice of it anyway. "You don't own me anything, especially because I have told you virtually nothing about myself. It was horribly rude and selfish of me to demand that you have to tell me about things that you can hardly think about, let alone voice. I'm truly sorry about that Love."

Emma smiled softly at him, tears gathering at the corners of her eyes. She was unbelievably touched to say the least. He gave her a small smile in return.

She pressed up on her toes and leaned her face in towards his, hoping he would get the message and meet her halfway.

He did.

Every kiss with Killian felt like the first kiss to her. They were all the same and yet completely different at the same time. Some were flames, burning and rushing under her skin. Some were quiet, and soft, like a sleeping baby. Others, like this one, were tender and warm, like standing in the sun on the middle of a cool fall day.

Emma wrapped her arms around his neck, keeping his mouth on hers as she dropped down from her toes and planted her feet back on solid ground. He wrapped his arms around her in turn, his hand coming to tangle in her hair while the left arm wrapped securely around her waist.

She pulled back before the kiss became any more intense. She still wanted to talk with him about what she had seen with his brother.

"I missed you, so much." She said, staring at his sky blue eyes. She didn't want to think about those long days down on the block, not knowing when, or if she would be released. When her next meal would come. What had happened to her friends.

It had been the hardest to think about Killian. Not knowing if she would ever get to speak with him and begin the process of repairing what had been broken those weeks ago.

He squeezed his arms around her and buried his face back into her hair. She tucked her nose into his neck in return, enjoying the safety of being in his arms.

"Besides," Emma started, "I wanted to tell you that I understand."

Killian pulled back from her abruptly, his eyebrows furrowing together in confusion. "Understand what?" He asked.

"I understand what it is like to come here under...Not the greatest circumstances." She said, struggling to find the right words.

"Not the greatest circumstances, what are you talking about Emma." He asked, even more confused than before.

"Well, after what your brother said….."

"My Brother?!" Killian said, sounding alarmed. "When have you ever talked with Liam?"

"Just a bit ago, I went over to find David…" She started, not understanding his reaction to what she was saying.

"How much of that conversation did you hear Emma?" He questioned, gripping the tops of her arms, this wild look coming into his eyes. She pulled back from him a bit, his reaction starting to concern her, for a number of reasons.

"I heard enough, but it was more of what Liam said to me after you left…" She trailed off as Killian pushed away from her and shoved his hand into his hair, groaning in frustration.

"So you know." He said, looking back at her after a few heart stopping minutes.

"I don't know everything, but he told me enough to-"

"To what Emma! You know enough about me now to know that I am not the sort of man that you want to be with anymore? Is that it?" He asked, growing more agitated as he lobbed question after question at her.

"What? NO! Killian, I'm not explaining this well. Let me explain." She pleaded, moving to grab his hand.

He pulled away from her, putting both arms up next to his head in frustration and walking around the room.

When they had both arrived, the room had been dark. Emma's eyes had adjusted some to make out where he was and the expression on his face when he was close, but she marveled at the way he avoided running into any of the mechanics and other objects in the room.

She supposed for someone whose powers were darkness, that granted him a bit of an advantage.

"Killian-" She started again, trying to salvage what was happening in front of her eyes.

"What do you want me to say Emma? That I'm okay with everything happening to me? Because I am not."

"I'm not saying-"

"I have never been farther from okay than I am right now. Not everything around here is like those books Emma." He said, whirling around to look at her.

"What books?" She asked.

"All that Shel Silverstein crap. The world isn't all butterflies and rainbows." Killian said it with such viciousness, he might as well have slapped her.

She reared back as if he had, feeling a sharp stabbing pain flare in the middle of her chest.

"Oh don't look at me like that Emma." He said, exasperated. "You know what I mean."

She didn't. Yeah, life hadn't been all butterflies and rainbows for her, far from it actually, but she didn't let that cloud her view point.

Most of the time anyway. She knew she was guilty of letting her past experiences change how she would have reacted to something or how she would have approached a situation, but that didn't make a difference in how she saw other people.

David had been helping her with that since they had met. Killian helping her more recently, more that he seemed to have realized.

"Yeah, I get it. But that doesn't mean you have to talk down to me Killian." She said.

"I'm not talking down to you Emma. I am trying to get you to see the world the way that I have experienced it. I haven't had it easy Emma." He said, still yelling at her.

"Well I wouldn't know anything about that, now would I! Since you don't tell me anything." She hurled a point from their last argument back at him.

"No, you just go to my Bloody Brother to learn all of my darkest secrets!"

"Like you don't go and get all of your information about me from David behind my fucking back." She yelled back, feeling her flames; which had winked out earlier, come roaring back to life.

"Now don't you go accusing me of going behind your back Emma."

"Why shouldn't I, you just threw the same accusation at me!"

"Because how in the bloody fuck would my brother know that I was here? I haven't had any form of communication with him since I was deployed on my last mission."

"How the fuck am I supposed to know that? I was on lock down for the last week and a half, or have you forgotten about that" She said, getting angrier with him by the minute. She couldn't remember a time she had been so angry.

"By your own fault." He said, stabbing a finger at her.

Emma could have sworn smoke was coming out of her ears, she was so angry. Her mouth tasted like ash.

Smoke must have been coming out of her ears, because the sprinklers in the room began going off, drenching both her and Killian in a matter of seconds.

She lifted her eyes to the ceiling, screaming her frustration.

How had everything gone so _wrong_?

Dr. Hopper burst through the door not even a minute later.

"Is everything okay up here?" He asked, catching sight of the two of them as he turned the lights on.

"Just fine Doctor. That was all my fault. Sorry for triggering the sprinklers." She said over the rush of the water.

Dr. Hopper moved to a panel on the wall and flipped two of the switches, turning off the torrent of water.

"Anything you two want to say about this?" He asked, crossing his arms, looking at Killian more than her.

"No." She said, both pairs of eyes whipping across the room to look at her. "I don't have anything more to say. It's pretty clear what just happened. So I am just going to leave if that's alright."

She wrapped her arms around herself as she turned to leave the room. Feeling hurt and lost at what just happened.

She made it out of the building before Killian caught up with her. She heard his shoes squelching along the sidewalk before she saw him.

With the full intent of ignoring him, she pressed on faster, trying to make it back to her dorm.

"Swan." He shouted, his watery footsteps getting louder before she felt his hand latch onto her upper arm.

She yanked her arm free before turning on him. "What do you want Killian? Don't you think you have said enough already?"

Killian looked down at her, his hair dripping down into his eyes, clothes plastered onto his body. He looked downright miserable. Emma had no sympathy for him.

None at all.

After another agonizing minute of waiting for him to do something other than stare down at her, she had had enough.

"If that's all Killian, I am going to go back to my room now." She said, not bothering to hide the hurt and anger in her voice. "Don't follow me. I don't think I want to talk to you for a while."

Emma turned her back and made her way across campus. Ignoring the curious looks that the other students were throwing her sopping wet appearance, she made her way into her building and climbed the stairs up to her room.

David was waiting for her when she got to her door, a bottle of rum in his hand.

Tears welled up in her eyes without her permission. "I really don't want to talk about it." She said, wiping a wet sleeve under her nose.

"I wasn't planning on talking about anything." He said, raising the bottle. "I thought you could use a drink."

He didn't say anything further as she opened the door to her room. She held the door open and gestured for him to join her.

After changing into a dry set of clothes, she sank down onto the floor next to David, skipping the offered glass and taking a swig right from the bottle. It burned it's way down her throat, offering some relief from her feelings.

"Today sucked." Was all she said, a few silent tears falling down her cheeks.

David just nodded and took the bottle from her, taking a swig of it himself.

Emma leaned her head against his shoulder and finally allowed herself to cry.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary** : Ever since Emma was 13, she knew she had the ability to destroy people if she wanted to, and some days, she really wanted to. After being forced to go to Greenwood Academy following a traumatizing event in her childhood that brought to the surface her ability to manipulate fire, she never thought she would be free of the place. So for nearly 10 years, she lived a solitary existence with the exception of her best friends, but that was all about to change.

Killian Jones had just been sentenced to attend the university campus at Greenwood Academy after an accident at sea caused him to be dishonorably discharged from Her Majesty's royal Navy and lose his hand. He doesn't know what to think about these newfound powers and what they spell for the rest of his now not-so-normal life. But a chance encounter one day has the ability to change all of that.

A story about love and redemption between two people that shows, if you have the right person beside you, you can find a light in the darkness.

 **Rating** : M

 **Content Warnings** : Mentions of Violence/Death, Brief mention of Childhood Abuse/Sexual Assault, Mild Sexual Content.

 **CHAPTER SPECIFIC WARNINGS: MENTIONS OF VIOLENCE/DEATH, BRIEF MENTION OF CHILDHOOD ABUSE/SEXUAL ASSULT.**

 **Chapter Notes:** We are almost at the end, One more chapter after this one! Can't believe this experience is coming to a close. As you can probably guess we are going to be wrapping up a lot of loose ends. Just as a word of warning, the content warnings play a big role here, mainly in the flashbacks of Emma and Killian's past, so I want to give you a heads up. The mention of childhood abuse/sexual assult is in Emma's flash back, and I will mark it separately so that you could skip over that part if it really isn't something that you want to read or could be triggering. As always thanks to daveyjacobsthepotterhead for being a lovely beta reader and for princesse-swan for all the amazing art. Check out her full story artwork for this story on tumblr!

* * *

Chapter 14

The next couple of days passed in a blur to Emma.

After David had joined her that night and drank through half a bottle of rum with her, she had finally told him about what had happened to her after the battle.

How she was locked down on the ICE block, thankful again to August for leaving her without any suppression gear so that way she would survive her time there. About her fight with Killian after she had left David and Liam the other day. The horrible things he had said to her.

Thinking back on what he actually said to her wasn't actually that bad, but the fact that he insinuated that she had purposely done something to get herself thrown onto the ICE block was what had really set her off.

But David had been a true brother, holding her while she cried onto his shirt and listening to her while she poured her broken heart out to him.

She didn't think that Killian had tried to hurt her on purpose, but it didn't change the fact that he did hurt her, and she needed some time to figure herself out again before she could see him, let alone talk to him.

After that night though, she had made it her mission to go out of her way to avoid him. She made sure that she didn't hang out with her friends any longer than necessary, at least when David was with them.

She knew that David and Killian had gotten close since she introduced them, and she didn't want to be a friction point in their relationship either.

So she spent a lot of girls days with Ruby and Mary Margaret, who she was finally getting along with on better terms than before.

It was fine, having some longer girls days with her friends, she felt like she had been neglecting them since she started her relationship with Killian, until it wasn't fine.

Mary Margaret and Emma were sitting in the corner of the dining commons with their text books spread out in front of them, attempting to study for Ethics again.

None of them had done poorly on that first exam earlier in the semester, but it was a class that everyone in her little friend group seemed to be struggling with.

Mary Margaret chewed on the end of her pencil nervously, her eyes flicking to Emma every couple of seconds.

She finally couldn't take it anymore, "What?" She asked, unnecessarily harsh.

"We are just worried about you Emma." She said, like she was trying to explain something sad to a child.

"Yeah, well, you don't have to." She said, turning back to her study guide.

"Things between you and Killian weren't bad, and everything was probably blown out of proportion-" Mary Margaret started, but Emma really wasn't in the mood to be lectured.

"Look, I really don't want to talk about this." Emma said, not looking up from her study guide.

"But you won't talk to anyone about it!" Mary Margaret exclaimed, startling both herself and Emma. Emma looked at her in surprise. Seeing that she had her friends attention, Mary Margaret continued, "You won't talk to me, you won't talk to Ruby. David thinks he did something to offend you because you are avoiding him now too. And you sure as hell won't talk to Killian."

"And what would I have to talk to him about." She asked, still in a bit of shock from her friends tirad.

"I don't know, how about starting with the weather, and seeing where it goes from there." Mary Margaret said, frustration clear in her voice. "I don't know, maybe you will end up talking about your relationship, which really needs work."

Emma stared at her friend in disbelief. She had never heard the mild mannered woman speak to any of them this way.

Mary Margaret continued, "But don't listen to me, your friend who only has your best interests at heart. Oh no, don't listen to me at all, because you don't want to own up to and face what I am saying, because it hurts."

"Yes, it does hurt, because I trusted him. I don't trust people very often, you know this. But I trusted him, and he broke that trust. And I can't forgive that." Emma said.

Mary Margaret stood up and gathered her books.

"Where are you going?" Emma asked, suddenly feeling very small.

"Somewhere else. You obviously don't want to be around anyone right now. I thought I would make your life a little easier." She said, slinging her bag over her shoulders and walking out.

Emma watched her leave in open mouth shock.

A few people were looking in her direction as well, wondering what had happened to cause the outburst. They all looked away when they noticed Emma looking around.

Emma squeezed her eyes shut, feeling the tears well up unexpectedly. She wrapped her arms around the back of her head and squeezed, trying to get her emotions under control.

She didn't like feeling this out of control.

It didn't work, because the sobbs boiled up anyway. So Emma laid her head down on the table and wept.

.o.O.o.

Killian was wandering around campus, seeing if he could stumbleupon Emma along the way.

He wouldn't go so far as to say that he was actively looking for her, but he wanted to run into her all the same.

He just didn't know how he was going to face her after the horrible things he had said to her.

And if David had gone so far as to punch him in response to what words he so carelessly threw at her the last time they spoke, when all she was trying to do was comfort him, he deserved her avoiding him and never agreeing to talk to him ever again.

But if Killian was anything, he was still a gentleman, and he felt the need to apologize to Emma, even if it wouldn't fix everything.

As he made his way through the library to the third floor to find a book that he needed to read for his literature class next week, his luck seemed to turn in his favor.

Emma was sitting at one of the back tables, her back to him and headphones on, drawing.

Killian took a deep breath to steady himself before he pushed through the doors leading to that section.

Deciding to forgo looking for his book first, he slowly made his way over to where she was sitting.

As he got closer, he caught a glimpse of what she was drawing over her shoulder, and it stopped him short.

It was a picture of him. Well, both of them actually.

The only spot of color on the page was a small flame in Emma's hands, lighting up the two of them. It looked like the male figure in the painting was crouched over, with tendrils of darkness seeming to pour out of him and surround the two of them. The male's face was turned up towards the female figure, who was bending down to shine her light on his face.

Emma's hair, as it was clearly her in the rendering, was blowing around her on an unseen wind, the darkness weaving amongst the tresses. A small smile was gracing her face as she reached down and touched a hand to the male's shoulder.

The darkness had moved away from that hand, pushed away by Emma's light.

He shook his head to clear it. The drawing was messmerizing indeed, but he needed to try and get his thoughts into order before he said something to her again that he would regret. Again.

He moved around her, giving her enough space so that she would see him around and he wouldn't startle her.

Emma looked up at him in a bit of surprise, moving to take the headphones off her ears.

He spoke before she could say anything. "Is it alright if I join you?"

"Yeah, sure." She said, tucking her headphones around her neck.

Killian pulled the chair out across from her and sat down.

Now that he was sitting in front of her, all of the words that he wanted to say to her evaporated from his mind. He clenched his hand around his blunted wrist and stared down at the table.

His legs began bouncing under the table with nervous energy.

He could feel Emma's eyes on him for a long minute before she sighed and Killian heard her pull her headphones over her ears again.

He listened to the rhythmic scratch of the pencil against the paper as she drew and hummed under her breath to herself for a few minutes, before she stopped where she was at and sighed.

"Can I say something?" She asked.

He looked up to see her folding the notebook shut and setting it aside.

"I wanted to say I was sorry." She said, looking him in the eyes.

He could feel the confusion written on his face. If anyone should have apologized it was him. He said as much.

"I won't argue with you there, but we both said stuff that we didn't mean and I overreacted, both times." She said, alluding to the first time they had an argument when he forced her to try and tell him what had happened to her.

Curious, he asked "What do you mean?"

"I think it's time I finally told you about how I started at Greenwood."

o.O.o

Emma watched as Killian's eyebrows shot up his forehead.

"Swan, you don't have to-"

"Yes, I do. You told me enough about what happened to you, and so much has happened between us that I, I think I do."

He watched her expectantly.

"So, this isn't any easy story for me to tell." She said, wringing her hands together nervously. "Only David knows this whole story, not Mary Margaret, not Ruby. So you are going to have to give me a minute."

"Okay. So. Um, I first discovered my powers when I was 12." She said, closing her eyes.

She could still remember that day in such vivid details.

 _The curtains in her bedroom were swaying gently in the breeze coming through the windows. It was finally getting warm enough out that her mother had said they could finally start keeping the windows open and Emma had pressed the full advantage, throwing all of the windows as far open as she could._

 _She was sitting at her desk, practicing drawing the figurine that the art teacher at her school had given her to practice drawing people's bodies when she first started hearing it._

 _It sounded like someone was stumbling through the house. Cabinets were being opened and shut, and it sounded like someone had bumped into the table in the hallway leading to her mother and stepfather's room and knocked the picture over._

 _Her Mother and brother were out at his baseball game, but they had mentioned that her stepfather would be home before they were able to make it._

 _She had never been fond of the man who had married her free-spirited mother and chained her to his side._

 _It seemed to Emma like something in her mother died after she had married him._

" _Papa?" She called out, opening her bedroom door and peering out towards the main house. Emma had never wanted to call him dad, he could never replace the kind hearted man who had helped raise her until he passed away 4 years ago when she was 8._

 _The loud, lurching steps picked up again and her stepfather appeared at the end of the hallway, leading to where hers and Sean's rooms were._

" _There's the little bitch." Her step-father said. Something wasn't right._

"Your step father was an alcoholic." Killian said, jolting her from the memory.

"A horrible one," She responded, "but no one but Sean will acknowledge it in the family."

 _He lurched unsteadily down the hallway towards her, and she stumbled back into her room. He had shown some odd behaviors towards her before, like watching her and her friends playing a little too closely while they were over at the house to the point of where mother had yelled at him to knock it off, but nothing like what was happening now._

" _You always have to disrespect me in front of my friends, don't you? Can never show me any respect or acknowledge the fact that i run this household." He said, leaning in towards her, his reeking breath in her nose, in her mouth._

" _What?" She stammered out, pushing further away from him and against her bed._

 _ **MENTION OCCURS BELOW THIS POINT**_

" _It's time I teach you some manners." He said, grabbing the front of her shirt and pulling her into him._

 _She frantically moved to push away from him, pushing at his chest and stomach with her fists._

 _He was too strong though, and his fist tore through her shirt. "There you are." He said._

 _Sobbing._

 _Emma was sobbing._

 _His body loomed over her as he pushed her down onto her bed, and his hands were everywhere. All over her chest, and legs and pulling at the waist of her pants._

 _The tears were beginning to fade as she was becoming more and more numb to what was happening to her._

 _But all of a sudden she felt all of the weight of his body on top of her and she was angry, she was mad that this was happening to her._

 _ **MENTION OVER, CONTINUE READING HERE.**_

 _The rage barreled through her like a storm, and she wanted to explode into a white hot ball of flame._

 _Then he was screaming, terrible horrible screams as flames clung to him as he lept off of her._

 _They burned through his clothes and his skin started to blacken as the flames that wouldn't go out began to consume him._

 _Emma was watching him in shock. She couldn't process what was happening. She reached out for him on instinct and she noticed the flames burning around her hands. They didn't burn her, but she could feel the heat rolling off of them._

 _She looked away from her hands as she heard a crash._

 _He was still trying to put the flames out as they continued to burn him._

 _He grabbed onto those beautiful curtains still swaying in the breeze and in an instant they went up in flames as her step fathers charred body slumped to the floor before the window._

 _Emma screamed as her entire room began to get engulfed in flames. She couldn't make the fire in her hands stop, it just kept burning. Hot, steaming tears poured down her face. She couldn't make it stop._

 _The flames began to roar around her louder._

" _Emma! EMMA!" She heard someone yell from somewhere else in the house._

 _Her mother came barreling into the room, but stopped and stood back when she saw the flames burning at her daughter's hands. The charred remains of her second husband on the floor in front of the window where the curtains had been blowing in the breeze. Now ashes just floated on the wind._

 _Emma's mother screamed in horror._

 _Horror at what she had done._

 _It was her brother who had inevitably pulled her from the house when her mother turned and ran from her._

"Emma." Killian said as she came back to the present.

"I was taken to juvie the next day after they had released me from the hospital. They released me into protective custody a month later, since they didn't know how to handle someone with my particular gifts at jail. I wasn't volatile, I had no problem with flares, right from the start, but they didn't know what to do with a 12 year old who had just burned her step father alive."

Emma thought back to those days with her custody family. The father had a gift to manipulate wind, giving him the ability to smother any flames she could have possibly produced. He was a corrections officer at the prison as well, which made him the best possible match for her. He took her under her wing and they actually became fast friends during the time they spent together. The courts had relieved him of his duty at the prison to stay home and care for her. He helped her learn a bit about her powers, because no one had explained what had happened to her yet, and after getting over her fear of him in the beginning, she grew to trust and care for him. She cried when she was taken away from him. He cried watching her get dragged away from him too.

"And after a long trial, where my mother essentially disowned me from the family, I was sent here." She finished. They figured it was the best place for her, because while she showed stunning control over such violent powers at such a young age, she had killed someone, even in self defense. And they couldn't get around the fact that it made her High Risk, no matter what they did to try and figure something else. She was stuck until Riggans said she wasn't.

And that would never happen.

Killian was just staring at her, an expression she couldn't identify on his face, and it was starting to freak her out a bit.

"You don't have to say anything." She said, "I know it's all kinds of fucked up, but it's my story. And one of these days I just have to own that."

Killian reached out with his hand and wrapped his fingers around where her left ones were drumming on the table.

He squeezed her fingers and looked at her with a soft smile on his face. "I Love You."

o.O.o

The look on Emma's face when he said that was something he won't ever forget. The way her face lit up and all traces of sadness from her story drained away.

"What?" She asked, a bit of a disbelieving laugh in her voice.

"You don't have to say anything back, in fact, I don't expect you to say anything back. But I just thought you should know that." He said, still holding onto her left hand.

Emma's lips pinched together in the way that surely meant that she was going to say something, but he cut her off.

"Besides, it's time I finally told you what happened to me as well." He looked right into her eyes, "Fair's fair and all."

Emma nodded, turning her hand around so that they could better hold hands on top of the table.

He thought back, not really sure how to begin his tale.

Emma squeezed his hand and gave him an encouraging smile.

"So, you will remember I said I was a Lieutenant in Her Majesty's Royal Navy? Right?"

She nodded in response.

"Well, at the start of last year, my ship was deployed out into the Pacific, the area around the Hawaiian Islands. We were to be doing military drills and partols with this group of ships from America's Navy.

"A majority of the deployment went fine. Only a month or two before I arrived here, we were doing some drills out near some of the more remote Islands when we were attacked." The day was coming back to him a bit more clearly now that he was thinking about it.

 _Killian was laying down in his bunk, reading a book Liam had left for him before he went on his own deployment five months before he had been shipped out here, when the first impact hit._

 _It had felt like some benevolent sea god had come up from the great blue deep and slammed his hands into the side of the ship, lurching starboard before righting herself quickly._

 _Killian had been tossed from his bunk, landing soundly on the floor in a heap of blankets as the sirens began going off, signaling the attack._

 _He scrambled to his feet, grabbing his rifle and handgun from where they were tucked into the corner of his room and bolted out the door. There hadn't been any comm as to where the attack was occuring, so he followed the outflux of other officers towards the upper decks of the ship. He was one of the few who didn't have to participate in the current drill since he had been on deck for the previous three. His commanding officer had taken notice of it and given him a leave for the rest of the week, stating that he didn't need to over do it. They were just drills anyway._

 _Not anymore, he thought bitterly._

 _Another blast struck the ship, causing him and the few officers still on this level to stumble back into the wall as the ship rolled ominously again._

 _Whoever was attacking them had a lot of firepower with them._

 _He was up on steady feet before a majority of the others, and he pressed his advantage as he began storming through the halls, grabbing the top of the ladder with both hands and pulling himself up to the next level._

 _He made it up onto the main deck and took in the chaos happening in front of him._

 _And then they were on him. He barely ducked out of the way of someone swinging the butt of a gun towards his head and turned around, swinging his own weapon around and knocking his attacker out cold. But where one went down it seemed like 3 more appeared in his place._

 _Killian had never seen any kind of attack like this, not even in his lessons in the academy._

 _After dispatching his next 4 attackers, he pushed his way out and further onto the deck, looking to find a way to get to his post at the long guns on the far side of the deck from where he had emerged._

 _The fighting was too packed together for him to properly fire the rifle, so he kept it strapped over his back to try and keep it out of his way while he was fighting his way through the throng of people on the deck._

 _That proved to be a bit of a downfall, however when someone grabbed the rifle and used it to yank him back, forcing him onto his back onto the deck._

 _Killian didn't even think, he just reacted, putting his handgun up and firing._

 _The body of one of the attackers collapsed next to him, apparent from his lack of proper uniform._

 _Scrambling up to try and avoid another such attack, he pushed past a few more officers before making it to the rail, where the fighting was a little thinner._

"That sounds like it was horrible." Emma said, making him jump a bit.

"Yeah, it was horrible. The fighting here hadn't been near as confusing as it had been on the deck of that ship." He commented, grateful that she had spoken, grounding him back in the present. He squeezed her hand in thanks and continued.

 _Making it as best he could, he started making his way towards the bow of the boat, hoping to figure out where the attack had originated and helping in any capacity possible. Pausing his flight as two uniformed soldiers shoved an attacker overboard in front of him, he looked down the railing and out to the horizon to see if he could find any sign of the vessel that had attacked them. Seeing none, he pressed forward again._

 _The attacking vessel must be located on the other side of the ship, he thought to himself._

 _He made it around the front of the ship where the wheel was located, finally making it to his destination of one of the long guns stationed on the starboard side of the ship._

 _It seemed that his trip was going to be in vain though, as the metal around him in the deck gave an ominous groan._

 _Pausing in shock and confusion was his undoing, as the metal gave out beneath him, taking himself and three other officers down a level and crashing them into the floor beneath them._

" _What in the Bloody fuck just happened." One of the other officers next to him groaned._

 _Killian himself was wondering the same thing. He did a quick stock of himself to make sure he didn't get injured in the fall._

 _While his head was spinning, he didn't think that he had actually hurt himself anywhere else. As he moved to push himself up, he felt an acute twinge in his back and laid himself back down._

 _Damn. He thought to himself, hoping he hadn't sustained a back injury._

 _What had Liam always told him about possible neck and back injuries?_

 _Killian moved his toes in his boots experimentally, then his feet and ankles. After doing a quick check up of his legs and arms, he suspected that all he had done was pull a muscle, as everything else seemed to be functioning properly._

 _He opened his eyes and looked around him._

 _The other officers that had fallen with him were all in various states. Two were already working to push themselves up and get themselves oriented as to what was happening around them._

 _The other, another lieutenant that he recognized from down the hall from him wasn't moving._

 _Killian pushed himself up with a groan, ignoring the twinge in his back and reached his hand out towards the other officer._

" _Jenkins?" He asked, shoving on his shoulder. The other two officers turned to watch what he was doing._

 _Killian pushed on Jenkins shoulder again, this time with more success. He was rewarded with a groan._

 _One of the officers already standing rushed over, Killian noted the name and rank on his shirt. Commander Williams._

 _Williams stood over Jenkins and began to assess him quickly. Killian got himself fully up to his feet and pulled the rifle, which had thankfully survived the fall and was likely the cause of the twinge in his back, over his shoulder and into the crook of his arm._

 _He lined up with the other officer, Lieutenant-Commander Ronen, and they both began advancing down the hall, looking for whatever caused the cave in._

" _Do you know what could have caused that?" He whispered to his companion._

" _No clue, it almost seemed like it could have been one of those gifted blokes." Ronen responded, turning slowly to cover Killian's back as he cleared both directions of the fork in the hall._

" _I didn't think they allowed anyone with a gift to enlist in the Navy." He said, letting the Lieutenant-Commander take the lead in clearing rooms._

 _He turned slowly to check at their back again, a strange feeling skittering down his spine._

" _They don't." was Ronen's response._

 _The hairs on the back of Killian's neck rose._

 _He reached out and tapped on Ronen's shoulder, signaling him to stop in his checking of the rooms. Something didn't feel right. Ronen looked over his shoulder at Killian, wondering what had caused him to stop in his tracks._

 _Before either of them had any time to blink, the floor under them groaned and collapsed, dropping them down not one but two levels through the ship's decks again._

 _The landing this time around wasn't any better than the first time around, but Killian managed to get his feet under him when they collided with the second deck on their way down, and was able to stand and point his rifle at the mysterious man who appeared just outside the destruction._

 _Though, pointing a gun at someone who appeared to have the ability to manipulate metal wasn't his brightest idea, and he dropped the rifle as soon as he noticed the barrel began warping it's way around back to face him._

" _Who are you?" Killian demanded._

 _The man didn't answer him, only moving around the rubble to advance on him and Lt. Com. Ronen, who still hadn't stirred form his place on the ground._

" _Stay BACK!" He shouted, yielding a step as he moved back towards Ronen, knocking him in the shoulder purposely with his foot._

" _DON'T COME ANY CLOSER." He demanded, holding his ground as Ronen sturred beneath him._

 _Good._

 _Good that he wasn't seriously injured._

 _The man stopped a distance from them, cocking his head at them and looking at both of them with an intensity that was unsettling._

 _Another chill skittered it's way down Killian's spine, but he made every effort to not show that fear to the man across from him._

" _And just what can you do?" The man asked, his voice like gravel, like he hadn't used it in a while._

 _Ronen's hand wrapped around Killian's ankle. He did his best to suppress his surprise at the sudden contact. He held as still as possible as Ronen began feeling his way around his ankle and calf, looking for the handgun that he had strapped there._

" _What are you talking about?" He asked, trying to keep the man's attention on him and off what Ronen was trying to do._

" _Just what kind of gift are you hiding underneath your skin?" the man asked, his voice catching and hissing on the word skin._

 _Killian grew more confused, he didn't have any idea what this madman was talking about._

 _He cocked his head back at him, ignoring the way that spot on his back twinged._

 _The man grinned, exposing a mouth full of brown, rotted out teeth. "You have no idea what you can do, can you?"_

 _Killian felt the gun come loose from his calf, and suddenly a multitude of things happened in rapid succession._

 _Ronen rolled over next to him, extending the gun out in front of him._

 _The man in front of them extended his hand out towards Killian, as if he were reaching for something._

 _Killian reached to his waist and pulled the gun there, firing off a shot at the man, not knowing what he was about._

 _Ronen fired his gun a second later, right as something hard slammed into the middle of Killian's back._

 _Killian grunted at the impact, and in an instant the world went black around him._

"It wasn't like I had blacked out, I could still hear the world happening around me." Killian said, coming back to the present again.

"I heard more gunshots ring out around me, and something blistering hit my hand after a few minutes. I think that was when I fully lost consciousness."

"What happened after that?" Emma asked him quietly. Killian looked up at her, and she smiled softly at him. He quirked his lips up at her in return.

"After that I woke up in a helicopter, on my way to the Hawaiian Islands. They had done a bit for me in terms of taking care of my hand, but the Captain had determined me to be too risky to keep aboard until we made it back to the Islands ourselves. Somehow, I had blacked out the entire vessel. Even one of the smaller vessels and one of the American ships who had finally arrived to answer our distress calls gave reports that the entire vessel had disappeared into a black cloud, seeming to have disappeared into nothing, only to reappear a few minutes later." He said, trying to think back to what the officer had told him when they landed and were able to move him to a more secure medical facility. "I had flared a few other times while I was unconscious, nothing as spectacular as the first time though. But I did succeed in darkening the infirmary several times, to the frustration of the staff working there."

A small smile spread on his face at that thought. "Luckily for me, the Naval hospital on the main island also served to treat the gifted population of the state as well, so they were able to place me on a secure ward where they were more prepared to handle my flares while they treated my hand, or lack of it at that point. The had amputated while I was unconscious in the infirmary. hat was also when I got the notice that, as soon as I was healthy enough to endure a long travel, they were shipping me back to Britain, for my court marshall."

His brows furrowed as he thought about everything that had happened after that.

"I didn't know that Lieutenant Commander Ronen had died in those few minutes when everything had gone dark, and since I was the only one around besides the other mysterious gifted bloke, they had marshalled me on the charge of killing a fellow officer. Unfortunately I couldn't prove that I hadn't done it, and the round they recovered from him during the autopsy was fired from my gun. So they dishonorably discharged me from the Navy. That was where the real problems started though. Because they didn't know where to send me after that."

"Well, maybe it's lucky they sent you here." Emma said, her thumb brushing the back of his hand.

"I suppose, as none of the communities wanted to bring me on in the UK, and I was too old to be sent to one of the academies. Then they found out that the Americans had universities on their secure campuses and found one willing to take me on. They still hadn't found a good way to suppress my powers while I was in custody for the marshall, and was still flaring every couple of days. There wasn't anything that I could do to stop it, as it would happen when I would least expect it. And you Yanks had better ways of suppressing powers until you got them on a campus, so this was one of the best and safest places for them to send me."

Killian saw her shiver, probably remember as he did the deadening power in those gloves.

"But the best thing that came out of them sending me here has to be the friends that I have made while I was here. I didn't have many friends as I was busy doing work for the Navy. So it wasn't all bad coming here." He said, giving her a smile.

"No, I suppose it wasn't," Emma said, smiling back at him. She took his hand in both of hers and leaned over the table towards him, a searching look in her eyes.

Killian leaned forward towards her, pausing just before his lip met with hers. He needed to be sure.

Emma released a shaky breath against his lips before they _finally_ connected.

.o.O.o.

Kissing Killian again after all the time they had spent apart from one another, making their own lives miserable thinking the other hated them, was heaven.

It was everything she had been missing and more.

It was like the first bird song of the spring, or the smell of the first campfire burning in the fall, or the first rays of sunlight breaking through the endless night of winter.

She smiled into his mouth, groaning when he pressed his lips more forcefully into hers.

Oh yeah, she had definitely missed this.

Killian's wrist reached around the back of her neck, holding her in place as he thoroughly reclaimed her mouth.

He broke away first, both of them short of breath.

"I'm sorry," he whispered against her mouth.

"I'm sorry too." She whispered right back.

They both had said some horrible things to one another over the last few days, not intending to hurt one another and hurting each other all the same.

"Does this mean that we can try again?" She asked him, wanting to make sure that they hadn't both destroyed this wonderful thing between them.

"I think that can be arranged." He said, letting go of her hand to sweep her hair away from her face.

She smiled happily at him, relieved to be past this horrible bump in the road. "I love you."

The answering smile on his face was nothing short of blinding, and Emma couldn't have been happier.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary** : Ever since Emma was 13, she knew she had the ability to destroy people if she wanted to, and some days, she really wanted to. After being forced to go to Greenwood Academy following a traumatizing event in her childhood that brought to the surface her ability to manipulate fire, she never thought she would be free of the place. So for nearly 10 years, she lived a solitary existence with the exception of her best friends, but that was all about to change.

Killian Jones had just been sentenced to attend the university campus at Greenwood Academy after an accident at sea caused him to be dishonorably discharged from Her Majesty's royal Navy and lose his hand. He doesn't know what to think about these newfound powers and what they spell for the rest of his now not-so-normal life. But a chance encounter one day has the ability to change all of that.

A story about love and redemption between two people that shows, if you have the right person beside you, you can find a light in the darkness.

 **Rating** : M

 **Content Warnings** : Mentions of Violence/Death, Brief mention of Childhood Abuse/Sexual Assault, Mild Sexual Content.

 **Chapter Notes:** I can't believe the end is here! This journey with CSBB2018 has been nothing like I would have ever expected, and I am so glad that I did it. I have never finished a single multichapter that I have started in my life, and thankfully BB gave me the support and deadlines that I needed to finally be able to do it! I have so many people that I have to thank for following me on this journey, thanks to the moderators, for running a great FF writing group. Thanks to all the ladies on Discord, your words, stories, inspiration and oversharing will stay with me forever. You all gave me the kick in the butt I needed when I needed it and all those long nights sprinting to get words in by the deadlines were amazing. I can't thank you ladies enough. Even though it is cliché (and she will never read this) but I have to thank my mother, for telling me to do something for myself this year that I enjoy. I found BB and took the plunge, and have enjoyed the experience right from the start.

I would be remiss to not thank daveyjacobsthepotterhead, for being my beta reader. You and I were kind of thrown together at the last minute and we worked tirelessly together to make this weird idea that I had into something amazing. Our chats on tumblr and in the comments of this document were able to get me through this thing and turn it from something that I wasn't quite sure about something that I can say I am so proud to have written and put out there.

Also thanks to princesse-swan, for your gorgeous story art that you put together for this story. We were also thrown together at the last minute, but we made the best of the thing and I felt that our collaboration together worked out wonderfully on both sides. Thanks so much for your commentary on my story as well and giving me feedback when I needed it most.

Thanks to all my readers, especially those who took time to comment on every single chapter of this on , your comments meant the world and certainly made up for all the stress of writing this without any feedback at the time. You Rock!

Now, here it is! Enjoy!

* * *

 **Chapter 15**

 **3 months later**

Emma and Killian woke to pounding on the door.

Emma groaned, pulling the blankets further over her head and burying her face in the pillow. She felt more than heard Killian laughing from his place next to her in bed.

Ever since they had made up, they had been working on getting more comfortable with each other again, as well as working on some of their individual fears that lingered from their pasts.

The one they were currently working on having a breakthrough with was Emma's fears of intimacy.

She loved Killian, had told him so many times in the intervening months, but she had struggled getting over that barrier of being comfortable with a lot of physical and, their current struggle, sexual contact.

Not that there was anything wrong with that, as Killian kept assuring her, he was more than comfortable moving at her pace.

But Emma was frustrated with herself. It had been so long since that incident with her stepfather and she wanted to be over it, she truly did so she didn't feel like she was holding something back in their relationship. But anytime Killian put his full weight on top of her for an extended period of time she still felt that fear rising out of her, and her flames flickering awake to try and protect her.

She hadn't burned him again since that one disastrous night, but she didn't want to risk doing it again.

Killian's wrist rubbed along her back as he rolled over and leaned into her side, his face buried against the back of her shoulder.

He clearly didn't want to wake up and see who was at her door either.

The pounding became more insistent. "Emma, Come on, wake up!" She heard David call through the door.

Her and Killian both groaned at the familiar voice. They both probably should have moved faster at getting out of bed though, forgetting that David had a key to her room.

The door swung open unexpectedly, causing Killian to bolt upright, lobbing the pillow he had been using in the direction of the door.

David caught it with ease, his eyes widening comedically as he caught sight of a bare-chested Killian in her bed.

"Uhhh, is Emma here?" He asked, sounding completely uncomfortable with the state of things.

She extended her hand out from under the blankets and grunting before dropping her hand back down to the bed. It was too early in Emma's opinion for this to be happening.

"Are you dressed under there?" He asked, sounding even more uncomfortable than he had previously.

Killian laughed, causing the bed to shake with the force of his laughter.

"Yeah, I am." She groaned, still not moving.

"Good, because I have some news for you." He said, "Riggans was fired."

That got her attention. She bolted upright in bed, shoving her hair out of her face as she fully started waking up.

"What do you mean Riggans was fired?" She asked, disbelief coloring her voice.

"I mean, he was removed from his position as Headmaster of the lower and upper campuses here at Greenwood, pending an investigation into his possible involvement with the attack that happened a few months ago." David explained.

She looked over at Killian in disbelief. He looked just as shocked as she felt. Emma couldn't believe that Riggans would have been involved with the organization of the military style attack on their campus that got both her and Killian locked down.

Then again, she had remembered August and Graham commenting about how it was unusual that she was the one who was punished for protecting her campus while Gaston hadn't been sentenced afterwards besides being sent off campus to a different facility. Not even a more secure facility, one that had less security than the one they were currently attending. That had always struck her and Killian odd whenever they had talked about it.

"Bloody hell." Killian intoned next to her.

She could tell that he didn't know how to react to the news either.

David pointed towards the window, "As you can see, not many people are mourning him getting fired."

She and Killian shared a look before darting off her bed and pushing aside the curtains on her window.

Normally, she had a nice view of the courtyard between all of the high risk buildings. The courtyard was normally pretty quiet as not many students lived this far out on campus and the only traffic was high risk students getting to and from their buildings.

Now it was packed, full of students chanting and cheering and celebrating the loss of the man who had ruled this school with an iron fist for the last two years.

Emma had the strong urge to join them.

But there were more pressing thoughts on her mind.

"Do you know who they have selected to replace him?" She asked, not taking her eyes off the scene in front of her.

"I don't know him, but they announced that someone named August Clasen would be taking over until they could appoint a new Headmaster. Apparently he used to be the head of security." David said.

Emma's knees went a bit weak and she dropped her hand down onto the windowsill while the other went to her chest in shock and relief.

"Emma! Hey, what's wrong." Killian asked, his thumb brushing through tears she hadn't known she was shedding.

"We get to leave, we are going to get to leave." She said, hope shining in her eyes at the prospect of finally being able to leave this campus for good.

.o.O.o.

 **One year later.**

Emma's hands were shaking as she walked into the administrative building. She was finally doing this.

Not long after August had taken over as interim headmaster of Greenwood Academy, Edward Riggans, former headmaster, had been found guilty of conspiring to lead an attack against the gifted students at the academy in hopes of eradicating them.

The nail in his coffin had come when they called August onto the stand during his trial, and he had revealed his powers to the court and to Riggans for the first time.

Riggans had blown his lid in response, throwing out all kinds of slander at him and accusing him on manipulating him into doing all of those things that he was being charged for.

The only problem was that August could only read thoughts, not plant them. And the Judge knew that from first hand experience, because he had asked August to apply for the security job after a number of complaints had come in about how students were being treated at Greenwood that an investigation was launched while he was still headmaster.

The Jury sentenced him to life in prison for endangering the life of the minors on the campus and for targeted hate crimes.

Emma had never heard better news in her entire life.

At least, she hoped the news she was going to receive today would be better.

August had been selected as the new Headmaster for the Academy after the trial since no new candidates had applied for the position, and he had said when he took that office that he would listen to any case that came across his desk for a student requesting to live off campus.

Killian had held her when she cried after hearing that, because while Riggans had been headmaster, and the man who had held the office before him, they had both stated that High Risk cases wouldn't get a hearing. They would get moved to a community that was assigned to them when they outlasted their stay on the upper college campus.

Now Emma, and Killian as well, would get the opportunity to apply to live off campus in the community of their choosing, and if they were lucky, without any of their suppression gear.

Killian had been working hard all year with a new trainer who had been brought in to help him with his abilities. It took August some time, and he called in a personal favor to do it, but he made sure that everyone who didn't have a trainer before, or who wasn't getting trained, was getting the care that they needed to become good functioning members of society again.

After a couple of sessions, they had finally figured out what was triggering Killian's flares when he wasn't wearing his glove, and had created a plan to help him contain the flare before it created any kind of an issue wherever he was located.

It took a few months, but he was able to tell her three months ago that he finally stopped having flares that he couldn't control, and was able to use his powers with intent instead of it being a random explosion of darkness from around him.

And last month, she had applied to move the the community just off campus since she was graduating with her fine arts degree.

Killian wasn't going to be that far behind her, since he was graduating in the fall instead of in the spring. But he had also applied to live off campus with her, pending a final review from the trainers on campus. August was willing to let him finish his last semester off campus, so Emma hoped that would mean good things for her as well.

As she walked up onto the floor where the hearings were held, she headed over to where the secretary was currently typing away at her desk and cleared her throat.

"Emma Swan to see the Housing Review Committee," she said.

The woman looked up at her and nodded, gesturing to her to sit down in one of the empty chairs.

Emma tapped her hands against her knees restlessly. She was so nervous that her request was going to be denied.

"Emma Swan," A gentleman called from the doors.

The 5 other students who appeared to have been waiting before her scowled in her direction as she made her way back, smoothing down the edge of her cardigan nervously.

As she made her way into the room, she saw a table seated in the center of the room facing the committee panel lined up along the far wall. August was sitting in the middle of them, shuffling papers around to find what she presumed was her case file.

The gentleman who had called her back gestured for her to sit down at the table, calling out her name and case file number one more time for the committee .

There was another flurry of activity as everyone moved papers again to double check they had the right case number before they all turned and looked at Emma.

She resisted the urge to shrink down in her chair a bit.

"It's very nice to see you again Ms. Swan," August said, still leafing through her file.

"You as well, Sir. I don't think I ever got to thank you." She said, folding her hands together in an effort to keep from fidgeting.

"Whatever for child?" He asked, looking up at her surprised.

"For having the mercy to remove my suppression bracelets and the gloves before locking me on ICE two years ago. If it hadn't been for that kindness, I likely would not be here today." She said.

"Think nothing of it. Anyone could have seen what was happening to you was unjust." August said, returning to the files in front of him. "Now, it says here that you want to live in the community just off campus here, without visitor restriction, is that correct?"

Emma nodded at him. She didn't say that she really wanted to live there without her bracelets, but that would be a request for another time. "Yes, My brother, his wife and daughter would like to come and see me if approved. I haven't seen my brother in over ten years."

August's eyes crinkled behind his glasses.

"Yes, I see. The committee has taken the time this week to review your case and court files, and will be making a ruling today to either deny or accept the request to move off campus to the community." August started, looking down at her.

She nodded to show that she was following the formal language of the proceeding.

"I move that we accept the request to move one, Ms. Emma Swan, off campus to the Greenwood community, allowing her full visitor privileges and the ability to live without the suppression gear that has been provided to her by this academy." Emma's jaw dropped in response. "The committee will review the case in 5 years time to determine if the suppression gear needs to be reinstated or she can begin to assimilate back into normal society while maintaining residence in a community. All in favor, say aye."

Tears filled Emma's eyes as one by one the committee members voted to live off campus without her bracelets. As the last committee member cast his vote, August turned his smiling eyes on her.

"Congratulations Ms. Swan, the committee has moved to approve your request. You will be assigned a housing location by the end of the week and will have a months time after the end of the spring term to move in. Case closed." He said, hitting his gavel once on the desk.

Emma walked back to her dorm where Killian and the rest of her friends were waiting in a daze.

She was going to be free.

.o.O.o.

Killian groaned as his alarm clock went off. He rolled over and hit the offending device a few times before finally getting it to quiet.

Rolling back over, he reached his hand across the bed towards where Emma should have been laying, only to encounter empty sheets instead. He could hear the sound of the shower running in the other room.

Killian sighed. He knew Emma would be stressed out today, it was understandable considering the circumstances, but he had at least hoped that she would have gotten at least some sleep before she got up in the morning.

She had been turning over and fidgeting restlessly next to him for a good portion of the night, until he had reached over and pulled her body into his, tucking her back against his chest. He had hoped that stilling her movements and feeling the heat of his body would at least relax her enough to allow her to sleep, but it seemed like he was the only one who got some peaceful sleep out of the arrangement.

Pushing his hand through his hair to try and straighten it a bit, he pushed himself up and out of bed. Killian grabbed a shirt from off the floor and shrugged it on as he made his way downstairs towards the kitchen.

He thought it was the least he could do to make them breakfast.

Killian grabbed a box of pancake mix from the cabinet and set to work, grabbing the eggs and milk from the fridge. On a whim, he also grabbed the cinnamon from the cabinet as well, throwing a dash into the mix before whisking it all together.

Emma came pounding down the stairs just as he began to pour the first batch out onto the skillet.

"Morning Love," He said, turning to look over his shoulder at her.

She gave him a half smile in return as she continued to rub a towel through her damp hair.

"Do I smell pancakes?" She asked.

"Of course, with a secret ingredient thrown in for good measure as well." Killian said, flipping the first pair over.

"Color me intrigued." Emma replied, leaning next to the counter next to him. She was distractingly clad in his black robe, and nothing else from the looks of it, and it took all of his focus to make sure he didn't burn the pancakes.

He flipped the finished product out onto a plate, turning to pass it to her. Emma surprised him by wrapping her hand around the nape of his neck and pulling his lips down to hers, kissing him soundly.

He grunted, wrapping his left arm around her and pulling her as close as the plate between them would allow.

He broke away first, not wanting to get overly carried away. "What was that for Love?"

"Can't I thank my boyfriend for making us pancakes?" She asked with a smirk on her lips.

"Of course, whatever was I thinking." He replied sarcastically, even though he knew it was more than that in the kiss. She was still nervous. "Sit down and enjoy your breakfast Swan, I'll join you shortly."

Emma nodded, turning and sitting down at the kitchen table.

Once Killian finished the pancakes, he joined her at the table to eat. She still said little, pushing the pancakes around on her plate and not really eating them.

Killian sighed quietly and reached his hand over, stilling her fingers where they were tapping on the table top. "It will be fine Emma. I'm going to go up and shower." He said, squeezing her fingers and leaning over the table to press his lips to hers, a chaste comparison to the kiss over pancakes earlier.

Emma watched as Killian made his way up the stairs towards their shared room and sighed. She knew she was worrying him, but she couldn't seem to relax. She hadn't seen Sean since he was 16, and so much had changed in the last 11 years.

She also didn't know what he thought of her and her powers, which made the fact that he was coming over for his first visit today the more nerve-wracking for her. For all she knew, their mother had changed his views of her over the last 11 years, which would make this all the worse.

But he agreed to meet, so that was at least something.

She pushed the rest of her half eaten breakfast into the trash and left the plate in the sink for them to clean later.

Heading up stairs, she began shifting through her dresser and half of the closet for something to wear. What did you wear to meet with a brother you hadn't seen in 11 years? Not that, she thought as she passed on one of her short, red dresses in the back of the closet.

Finally, after a lot of indecision, she settled on a comfortable pair of jeans and a light sweater. She heard the shower shut off as she finished dressing, and she smiled softly as she heard him humming a song.

She was just as proud and excited as he was when he found out that his trainers had approved his request to be off campus for the remainder of his time at Greenwood. He still had to wear his glove, he wasn't that in control of his powers yet, but that didn't take anything away from the day they both found out. And it was a no brainer that Emma asked him to move in with her as well.

A good choice, she though as he stepped out of the bathroom, a towel slung low across his hips and his hand raised to towel off his hair.

They still hadn't taken that last step, but Emma was certain it would be happening soon. She was finally reaching that point where sexual contact wasn't sending her into a panic attack, but it wasn't entirely comfortable either. Her therapist, who she had started seeing to try and help things out, because she had a serious case of PTSD when it came to this even in her childhood, said that it would take time. And Emma was happy with the way things were coming along, it made her feel like maybe there wasn't something wrong with her.

Killian walked over to her and pushed her still wet hair back from her face, "Feeling better Love?" He asked, kissing her briefly on the lips.

"Surprisingly, yeah," She replied, standing up. "But you should get dressed, Sean is supposed to be here soon."

She kissed him once more for good measure, and then moved around him out of the room.

Only, once she was away from him and by herself again in the main room, her nerves came back ten fold.

A loud knock on the door forced her out of her thoughts.

Killian came bounding down the stairs, fully dressed if barefoot, and moved to get the door for her.

The sun shown through the open door, obscuring the features of the person at the door.

A throat cleared. "Uh, does Emma Swan live here?" A deep voice asked.

"Yeah, come on in. Name's Killian by the way. I'm Emma's boyfriend." Killian stepped back and let the gentleman in.

"Sean, Though you probably already know that." The voice held a faint trace of a smile.

Killian's response was lost to her as she took in the figure in front of her.

The face wasn't that different, though he had shed the last of the teenage softness and grown into the gangly shoulders. Sean stopped short, mouth open in what would have been a response to Killian when he caught sight of her. Tears welled in her eyes.

"Emma?" He asked, of course she would have looked different to him.

She nodded her head, "Hi."

Tear welled up in his eyes as well and he moved suddenly, pulling her into a crushing hug.

Her arms went around him and gripped him just as hard, both of them shaking with built up emotion.

"I missed you so much Bug." He said, gripping her tighter.

"I missed you too." She said.

Finally, everything in her life was perfect. And she could begin to leave behind the horrible things that happened to her at Greenwood for good.

 _Fin._


End file.
